Video Advance Directives: A Turning Point for Advance Decision-Making? A Consideration of Their Roles and Implications for Law and Practice

Questions regarding making and implementing care preferences through advance directives have become increasingly significant as the greying population grows with rising numbers of people experiencing incapacity. Currently, there is no consensus in the format for making advance directives. Recent developments highlighted the use of recording technology as an option to counter the challenges of written forms. Services offering video and audio recording available for online and offline storage are emerging in the United States. These services presumably strengthen a person’s expression of care preferences for healthcare providers in making treatment decisions compared to written advance directives. This article examines the role video advance directives play in advance decision-making and their legal and practical implications to the existing framework. An appreciation of the legal challenges presented by this development facilitates an understanding of their use in contemporary advance directives and enables appropriate recommendations for implementing safeguards in their use.

     

博弈视角下农地流转与农民利益保障机制探析

农地流转制度在巩固存量利益的同时,也带来了可观的增量利益,各个利益主体为分配新增利益势必会展开激烈的竞争和角逐.运用博弈论系统分析利益主体之间的博弈关系,透视现实制度实行中其他利益主体对农民利益的侵害.在策略选择上从宏观、中观和微观角度着力构建三位一体利益保障机制,矫正农地流转利益博弈中的力量失衡状态,促使农民的存量利益能够得到对价支付,确保农民能够公平参与增量利益的分配.     

Asymmetric bargaining between Myanmar and China in the Myitsone Dam controversy: social opposition akin to David's stone against Goliath

The Myitsone Dam suspension is an asymmetric negotiation between Naypyitaw and Beijing. The bilateral agreement of the hydropower project was concluded in 2009. However, Myanmar's civil society started to oppose the dam when political opportunities expanded in 2011. The quasi-civilian government in Myanmar was caught in an ‘audience cost dilemma': either to disappoint domestic constituents by fulfilling international obligations, or to compensate the Chinese dam developer for breaching the contract. In September 2011, Myanmar President Thein Sein declared the suspension of the dam throughout his tenure. Unexpectedly, China's state-owned dam company did not sue Naypyidaw. Moreover, Beijing even engaged with societal actors in Myanmar to seek their support for the project. How could Naypyitaw defy Beijing in this Myitsone Dam case? Drawing from 35 interviews with anti-dam campaigners and other stakeholders, as well as secondary data, this article argues that the rise of civil society successfully conditioned Naypyitaw's diplomatic options in the controversy. The change of Beijing's diplomatic strategy confirms that domestic constraint in Myanmar is not rhetorical. The Myitsone Dam case is an example that shows bilateral agreement without domestic endorsement can become China's business risk. Presumably, the dispute has wider implications for other Chinese overseas projects outside Myanmar.     

The 1998 State Council Organizational Streamlining: Personnel reduction and change of government function

The two goals of the 1998 State Council organizational streamlining were personnel reduction and a change of government functions. It is argued that the methods being used to achieve personnel reduction do not constitute a real reduction but largely involve transferring staff to other public institutions. Real personnel reduction could not be achieved without a major change of government function. Institutional reforms of both the central and local governments since the 1980s have been adaptations to the changing economic structure from a planned to a market economy. Government functions have served both existing economies. Cadres cannot be reduced unless the government function of direct management of state-enterprises is completely severed. The major contents of the 1998 institutional reform are examined and evaluated. The prospects for the success of the reform are also assessed.     

Ester Sin-man Leung:《法庭的語言鑑證》(Forensic Linguistics in the Courtroom)

International Journal for the Semiotics of Law - Revue internationale de Sémiotique juridique -     

禽鸟源传染性腔上囊病病毒分离株对鸡的致病性试验

用鸡、鸭、麻雀３种不同源性传染性腔上囊病病毒（ＩＢＤＶ）分离株人工感染８０日龄的ＳＰＦ鸡，初步试验发现，这些病毒均能使接种鸡的腔上囊明显萎缩，组织切片见淋巴滤泡萎缩、坏死，从人工感染的鸡腔上囊组织中可检测和分离到ＩＢＤＶ。各试验组的腔上囊指数平均值分别为：鸡２８３，鸭３１４，麻雀３６４，对照组５１１。经统计学分析（ｔ检验）３个攻毒组与对照组间均有显著差异。     

Environmental management and street-level regulators: A cultural trap?

It has been argued that environmental management is in an administrative trap. Numerous factors leading to this trapped situation have already been identified in the literature: institutional rigidity, lack of co-ordination, formalization, non-accountability and political interference. This study focusses on the organizational, cultural dimension of the administrative trap and argues that in order to reform administrative structures, the organizational culture must also be reformed. On the basis of several face-to-face interviews with street-level environmental regulators in Hong Kong, the study claims that a role-oriented, hierarchical culture exists. While such an organizational culture is in perfect agreement with existing administrative arrangements, it may, in the end, hamper the effectiveness of environmental management.     

Depressive symptoms and perceived competence among Chinese secondary school students in Hong Kong

Depressive symptoms of 621 Grade 7 to Grade 12 secondary school students were assessed and described in terms of dimensions of disturbances in mood, self-image, behavior, hedonic capacity, and self-efficacy using the Childrens Depression Inventory (CDI). Using the cutoff score of 20, 24% of the adolescents would be in the depressed range. In a subsample of 319 students who also completed the Self-Perception Profile for Adolescents, depressive symptom levels tended to be highest among students who perceived themselves to be relatively incompetent academically and socially, and lowest among students who perceived themselves to be academically and socially competent, supporting the cumulative effects of perceived academic and social incompetence on depressive symptoms. The relatively more elevated CDI scores and subscores among Chinese adolescents compared with US adolescents and the choice of a cutoff score for screening in the Hong Kong school population are discussed.This study was supported in part by a Chinese University of Hong Kong RGC direct grant for research.     

How Strong Is Public Support for the Death Penalty in Singapore?

Singapore is well known internationally for its uncompromising stance towards law and order and its use of the death penalty in particular for murder and drug trafficking. Until 2012, it was one of the few countries in the world where the death penalty was mandatory for persons convicted of these two crimes. The law was amended in 2012 to give a judge the choice to impose the death penalty or life imprisonment (with caning) for non-intentional murder and drug trafficking in some situations. What do Singaporeans think of the use of the death penalty in their own country? This article reports on some findings of a survey conducted in 2016 on 1500 Singaporeans to assess their knowledge and support of the death penalty.