Trial and Error – Failing and Learning in Criminal Proceedings

This paper addresses the selective mechanisms by which criminal proceedings produce strong arguments. It does so by focusing on the failing of argument themes (topoi) in the course of criminal proceedings, rather than on their career. In a further step, the notion of failing is bound to learning: different forms of failing point at different ways and places of learning. The study is comparative, relating cases from four different legal regimes (England, USA, Italy and Germany) that are taken from four extensive ethnographic studies in defense lawyer’s firms. We will track down the failures of topoi at three different stages (pre-trial, trial, and deliberation) in our different legal regimes. Failing occurs in all proceedings in various modes and at different stages. We argue that those modes as well as the different stages at which they occur point at the spots in the respective procedures that allow for learning about the inherent conceptions of “good reasons.”     

Deleuze &; Guattari’s Intensive &; Pragmatic Semiotic of Emergent Law

The paper articulates Deleuze & Guattari’s semiotics towards a semiotic of law through a discussion of the intensive semiotics of the field of emergence and pragmatic semiotics of social power. Within the framework of the pragmatic semiotics, it is argued that the crucial tension is how social machines and their regimes of signs operate with the intensive semiotics of the field of emergence. The signifying regime of the State social machine constructs itself on the excluded foundation of the field of emergence, and what is lost are the real ontological and social conditions of emergence, intensity and affect. In contrast, the counter-signifying regime of the war social machine actively operates with the intensive semiotic of the field of emergence, and develops an image of legality and regime of signs that taps the field of emergence for social organisation and expression. Returning to the issue of emergence and legality, the concept of Emergent Law is developed as a war social machine, abstract machine, assemblage, and regime of signs, that operates a semiotic that is developed in terms of an intensive semiotics that is open to and taps the forces of the field of emergence.     

<Emphasis Type="Italic">Peters Edition v. Batt</Emphasis>: The Intertextuality of Silence

The article deals, on the one hand, with a legal conflict between a musical performer/arranger, Mike Batt, and the estate of a composer of avant-garde music, John Cage, over copyright. It is also concerned with the field of intertextuality – how meaning is created in a text or in a work of art, whether it is visual, musical or verbal, through allusions and quotations to previous texts or works of art. The controversy, which did not reach the courts because of a pre-trial settlement, was over an author’s rights to silence, or, as in this case, a silent piece of music. The central issue discussed is the way in which silence may be considered – if at all, to be protectable.     

Schadenersatzreform – Gefährdungshaftung und Unternehmerhaftung

Der Entwurf eines neuen ?sterreichischen Schadenersatzrechts sieht Regelungen der Gef?hrdungshaftung sowie der Unternehmerhaftung vor. Der Beitrag untersucht die jeweilige Ausgangslage, das Reformanliegen und die Konsequenzen einer Reform.     

Tag des Wassers

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

中国科技法学会二00五年度大会学术讨论综述

2005年11月16日至18日,中国科学技术法学会2005年度大会暨高校科技法研究会学术研讨会在武汉召开。与会专家和代表就“科技发展与科技法制”、“高技术法制”和“知识产权法制”三大专题,聚焦科技与法律前沿问题、热点问题,从理论与实践两个方面进行深入研究和探讨。中国科技法学会会长、国务院国有资产监督管理委员会监事会主席段瑞春教授出席了会议,并就《创新战·品牌·知识产权》向大会做了学术报告,深刻指出企业要切实树立自主创新的主体意识,培育自主知识产权产业,大力推进自主民族品牌战略,从而提高企业核心竞争力。一、科技发展与科…     

关于在村委会选举中引入诉讼救济机制的法律探讨

村民享有选举村委会成员的法定权利,但村委会选举实践中村民选举权利常常受到各种主体的非法侵害,一个重要原因在于选举诉讼救济机制的缺位。我国现行法律对村民选举权利救济制度的规定极不完善,应尽快将诉讼机制引入到村委会选举中,加强对村民选举权利的法律保护。