晚近国际投资争端解决实践之评判:“全球治理”理论的引入

晚近国际投资争端的性质已由以往的政治性争端转变为现行的管理性争端,相应地,国际投资争端的传统外交保护解决方式也已为国际仲裁方式所取代,而且国际投资争端仲裁实践出现了明显的偏袒外国投资者,损害东道国权益之倾向。就此,已难以用传统的南北矛盾理论框定,而现有的商事仲裁理论和国内公法理论则存在着不同程度的缺失,需要引入一种视野更为宽广的全球治理理论予以弥补。     

挑战与应对:民行检察监督制度的新发展

民行检察监督制度获得强力推进的基本依据便是司法实践中不断增长的监督诉求,监督的范围在逐渐扩大,内含于监督中的观念性因素也在此过程中悄然转变,监督理念的现代化更新为监督制度的可持续发展提供了新的泉源基础。目前所需着力实现的制度转轨集中表现在从有限监督到全面监督、从实体监督到程序监督以及从诉讼监督到社会监督等三大转向之上,由此呈现出民行检察监督制度新发展的完整风貌。     

空白刑法规范的特性及其解释

空白罪状由于概括性的委任立法使得规范弹性具有难以避免性和合理性,法律概念的相对性更为明显,部门法规范的易变性也使得其容易出现偏离立法规范目标的情况,对其必须进行刑法的独立规范判断,区分事实问题和法律问题。提倡双向对应的规范解释路径,能够有效地实现概括的类型化转向具体的定型化,获得规范与事实的一致。由于罪刑法定在技术上并无制约作用,因此规范解释空白罪状时,重要的是合理运用解释方法,以得出妥善结论,注重目的解释和体系解释可以有效地实现刑法的规范保护任务。     

论证据意义上的事实

研究证据意义上的事实,有助于准确把握事实与事物,案件事实与证据事实的联系与区别,有助于准确理解与把握我国刑事诉讼证据规定首次明文确立的证据裁判原则、意见证据排除规则。事实与事物既有同一性又存在明显差别。事物是事实的载体,事实是事物现象的表述;事物会发生变化,事实却不会变化,事物的变化导致产生新的事实;事物的反面是无,事实的反面是假。案件事实不同于证据事实,案件事实不是适用法律的依据,证据意义上的事实才是适用法律的根据;案件事实的存在形式不受限制,无法被消灭,却有赖于证据证明,证据意义上的事实不仅存在形式和表现方式要受限制,而且还可能被消灭;证据意义上的事实除了具有客观性特征外,还具主观性特征。证人证言中的事实与意见的界定,以及确定证人证言意见性陈述合乎一般生活经验判断的方法,证人根据专业知识就专业问题作出的评论与判断意见性陈述应具有证据事实属性。     

西方世界深陷三重危机

西方的金融危机导致财政状况空前恶化,引发主权债务危机,主权债务危机的扩散造成金融市场和实体经济剧烈震荡,西方世界进入"财政危机—金融动荡—经济停滞"的严重恶性循环中,经济财政危机引起了西方社会对资本主义体制的再思考。     

The Secret Behind China's Growth

正There is no rocket science,magic or dubiety involved in China’s development miracle which posted a GDP growth rate of 6.9 percent in 2017,higher than the set target.It is the outcome of an economic management system that was put in place by a visionary political leadership to let everyone enjoy the fruits of sustainable progress.This has set the stage for resilient growth.It has impressed the world at a time when speculation was doing     

Legal and ethical considerations of biometric identity card: Case for Mauritius

The highly connected nature of the current era has raised the need for more secure systems, and hence the demand for biometric-based authentication methods. In 2013, the Mauritian Government invested massively in the collection of data, and implementation of the national biometric identity card scheme. The latter has suffered a number of contestations among the population, and several cases were consequently filed at the Supreme Court of Mauritius to oppose the use of this biometric card. The main concern was the collection of biometric data which posed threats to the privacy of individuals. Additionally, the collection and retention of biometric data lead to security issues. In this paper, the challenges with respect to the usage of the biometric card are analysed. The laws governing data protection are discussed, together with the legal framework used for data collection and retention. Following the court decisions, several amendments have been made to the existing laws in order to cater for the usage of biometric data for the public interest. Finally, recommendations are made with regards to a legal framework which will enhance the security of biometric data, and eventually encouraging public acceptance of this biometric identification system.     

A call for action

Abstract

This lightly edited version of an appeal by Jabbar Khan provides an inside look at the particulars of the continuing struggle in Bhopal in the face of self-serving governent communalism as well as persistent government and industry collusion. Although it was written before the ninth anniversary of the Bhopal gas disaster and we are now approaching the tenth, it seems likely that most of the issues remain the same; it can still serve as an appeal and a source of additional information.

It is close to nine years since the Bhopal gas disaster. The people affected by the poisonous gases of Union Carbide continue to suffer, and death continues to stalk the shantytowns around the factory. The survivors of the disaster wait in vain for a cure for their ailments. But the misery and death in Bhopal is no longer “news” for newspapers and the electronic media, and people outside Bhopal think all is well in this city of death. The reality, unfortunately, is quite different.     

Negotiating new conjunctures of citizenship: experiences of ‘illegality’ in Burmese-Rohingya and Bangladeshi migrant enclaves in Karachi

In this article, I examine aspects of recent shifts in Pakistani citizenship norms and the implications for migrant populations. In doing so, I investigate how the coalescing of national security concerns with broader issues of immigration has brought ‘illegal’ migrants like the Burmese-Rohingya and Bangladeshis into the state's documented embrace. My purpose is threefold: to record the modalities of change through the discourse of ‘illegality’ which articulate the exigencies of the ‘war on terror’; to explore the implications of such change on certain Muslim migrant populations resident in Pakistan for several decades; and, through these discussions, to show how citizenship and belonging have played out in a very different way for them. The subject of immigration/migration and illegality in Pakistan, especially in the post-9/11 frame, has remained largely below the threshold of academic attention.     

Macroeconomic performance and poverty in Brazil

Drawing on Brazilian time-series data this study finds an inelastic link between poverty and wages over the macroeconomic cycle that is devoid of the asymmetric effects that characterise the phenomenon's response to changes in the rate of unemployment. Deepening of structural reforms in the second half of the 1990s had no effect on the aforementioned relationships, which also varied little by regional level of development. Finally, the connection between poverty and long-term income changes was more elastic, suggesting an association between the economy's recent disappointing performance in alleviating poverty and its lacklustre growth record over the past two decades.