Democratic Values and Public Opinion Toward Immigrants: The Case of Ecuador

Scholars of support for democracy traditionally have been concerned with its causes, with the assumption that higher citizen support for democratic values will enhance democracy's chances of survival in a country. Beyond this fundamental proposition, however, the consequences of varying levels of support for democratic values remain largely unexplored. This article examines the relationship between support for democratic values and views toward immigration in Latin America, a region that is experiencing an unprecedented increase in the movement of people across borders. Through an analysis of Ecuadorian attitudes toward Colombian immigrants, this study finds strong evidence for the argument that support for democratic values has potential benefits not only for democratic sustainability in the region, but also for the reduction of social conflict and distrust that can stem from increasing immigration in a volatile economic context.     

Validity and Defeasibility in the Legal Domain

In jurisprudential literature, the adjective ‘defeasible’ appears as a predicate of many terms: concepts, laws, rules, reasoning, justification, proof, and so on. In this paper, we analyze the effects of some versions of the thesis of the defeasibility of legal norms on the reconstruction of the notion of legal validity. We analyze some possible justifications of this thesis considered as a claim concerning validity, and enquire into two possible sets of problems related to the defeasibility of the criteria of identification of a legal system. We also provide a formalization of some options regarding defeasible criteria of identification, which can be used as a tool for meta-jurisprudential analysis. Finally, the thesis according to which defeasibility is better conceived of as a feature of legal application is examined and questioned.     

What There is Left and How It Works: Ancient Rhetoric and the Semiotics of Law

The present paper examines three parts of ancient school rhetoric: the issues, the topics, and the questions of style from the perspective of legal semiotics. It aims (1) to demonstrate the roles these have played and can play in the interpretation of legal discourses; and (2) to summarise what insights have been and can be gained from this classical tradition by contemporary legal research. It is argued that the promise of legal semiotics for rhetorical investigations is that it may help to make sense of the functioning of the system of ancient rhetoric, and contribute to our understanding of how rhetorical tradition works, while the research of ancient rhetoric can explore a range of semiotic devices essential for lawyerly thinking, resulting in the knowledge of a richer framework of interpretation.     

Why voters do not throw the rascals out?— A conceptual framework for analysing electoral punishment of corruption

One of the intriguing phenomena in democracy is the fact that politicians involved in, accused of or condemned for corruption in a court of law get re-elected by their constituents. In some cases, corruption does not seem to negatively affect the development of political careers. In this introductory article, we try to develop a multidimensional framework for analysing electoral punishment of corruption. First, we will look into various studies on electoral punishment and highlight their advancements and shortcomings. Then, we will propose a more dynamic account of electoral punishment of corruption that takes into account individual as well as macro level explanations. Finally, we will disaggregate these two analytical dimensions into various explanatory factors.     

Educación jurídica,investigación y derechos humanos inteligentes

The recent studies on the genes, the neurons and the information, are influencing the form to know us and to know the reality. The opportunity is had, for this reason, to improve the formation of the professor and the students of the Right, to happen of an education of repetitions to one of new features, discovery, diversion, that is to say, investigation. One is to avoid “to transmit” information, but to explore it, to construct it, only to invent it, working in equipment, professor and students, inside and outside the hall classes. The contents to investigate can be placed in the past, the present or in the future, like the human rights. Thus, it is tried that the well-known or effective human rights, the products of the legal rationalism, are extended to protect the emotional human dignity: the respect, the confidence, the tolerance, the responsibility, the happiness, desire, the pleasure. Human intelligence is multiple, for that reason the human rights must be intelligent, that protect and develop the intellect, the affectivity, the corporal one, the energy, the environment and its cosmovisión.     

非经济领域的聚众犯罪研究

聚众犯罪主体人数众多,社会危害性大,影响范围广,其对经济、社会秩序带来的干扰远胜于其他类型的犯罪.近年来,随着城市化步伐的加快和人口结构的变化,聚众犯罪呈逐年上升趋势.以某地区近五年来发生的非经济领域的聚众犯罪案件为样本.在此基础上对该类犯罪产生的原因、犯罪的多发方式、多发领域等进行研究以期寻找预防与处理该类犯罪的方法和途经.     

“一带一路”倡议下中国与大加勒比地区的合作

中国与拉丁美洲关系源远流长,尤其是与加勒比国家。自1949年中华人民共和国成立以来,与大加勒比地区的政治、经济、文化关系日益密切。第一个与新中国建立外交关系的拉美国家是古巴,而巴拿马、萨尔瓦多与多米尼加则成为中国最新建交国成员。经过了70年发展历程,双边关系新纪元正在开启,特别是在“一带一路”倡议下。基于正在逐步兴起的“优势共享”理念,这个新时代亦开创了一个前所未有的新合作模式。中国与大加勒比地区关系发展所取得的经验能够展现一个新的协同合作方式。本文立足于大加勒比各经济体在同中国构建相互融合模式中发掘的机遇,并着眼于两个具体案例:“一带一路”倡议下的古巴和多米尼加,并以“双赢”原则为基础,对在特定领域深化同中国的关系提出建议,主要包括交通、电信、工业、贸易、能源、旅游、建筑业、金融、卫生和教育等领域。     

Argumentative Representation and Democracy: A Critique of Alexy's Defense of Judicial Review of Legislation

Robert Alexy has argued that the democratic objection to judicial review of legislation can be successfully addressed by assuming that judges exercise a special form of argumentative representation. In this article we argue that Alexy does not explain (as he should) under what circumstances judicial review tends to produce better decisions than parliamentary procedure, nor does he explain how judicial review can have a greater intrinsic value than parliamentary procedure. Subsequently, we argue that the intrinsic value of argumentative representation depends on the promotion of citizen deliberation, whereas its instrumental value depends on judges being committed to the rights of discrete and insular minorities in the face of hostile majorities.     

Law’s Determinability: Indeterminacy,Interpretative Authority,and the International Legal System

Netherlands International Law Review - Authority claims remain rooted in the antecedent existence of a degree of indeterminacy, in particular in the international legal system, in which a lack of...