Should Law track Morality?

Does the moral status of an action provide in itself a non-instrumental, pro-tanto reason for a corresponding legal status—a reason that applies regardless of whether the law promotes a value that is independent of the law, such as preventing wrongdoing or promoting utility or distributive or retributive justice, regardless of the consequences of doing so? While the relation between morality and law is a familiar topic, this specific question is rarely discussed explicitly. Yet it seems to be controversial. The article highlights and considers this question, while focusing on the criminal law. It concludes that the answer is negative—there is no necessary relation between morality and law in this respect. Rather, there is a reason in favor of incorporating morality into the law only when this incorporation promotes a moral value that is independent of the law.     

公众参与与行政法治

The public participation and the system of the People’s Congress constitute a basic mode of China’s modern democracy. This article first analyzes the lessons from the development of public participatory democracy since the founding of People’s Republic of China, especially those related to the promotion of public participation and the establishment of rule of law in administration and constitutionalism, then, and study the strategic value and potential risks of public participation to the development of human society, the necessity and channels of law protection on public participation. At last, it discusses the trend of public participatory democracy in the environment of globalization and informationization, and its impact on the reconstruction in respect of administrative rule of law and constitutionalism.     

Are Shelter Workers Burned Out?: An Examination of Stress,Social Support,and Coping

Job stress, perceived social support, coping self-efficacy, and coping strategies were studied as predictors of emotional exhaustion and reduced personal accomplishment among a sample of 123 female shelter workers. Overall, these workers did not meet the collective criteria for burnout as defined by Maslach and Jackson (1986) and perceived social support and coping strategies did not account for unique variance in the prediction of emotional exhaustion and reduced personal accomplishment. Rather, high levels of time pressure and low levels of self-efficacy for being productive at work were identified as predictors of emotional exhaustion. Personal accomplishment was predicted by time pressure and robust levels of self-efficacy for dealing with stressors at work. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 109th annual convention of the American Psychological Association. This paper is based on the Masters thesis of Lisa M. Baker and the undergraduate honors thesis of Nazish Salahuddin, both completed under the direction of Karen M. O’Brien. Gratitude is extended to Christel Nichols and to the crisis workers who participated in this study.     

The expanding galaxy of performing arts: extending theories and questioning practices

This paper introduces the Special Issue on the languages of performing arts and is therefore aimed at designing how the context of the latter can be illuminated by socio-semiotic and multimodal approaches to communication. In this Special Issue, performances and performing arts are described as multimodal semiotic acts that co-deploy a range of semiotic resources to produce and construct meanings across different cultures and ages. Seen as dynamic and interactive processes of meaning-making, their analysis calls for new and multidisciplinary frameworks which are collected in this Special Issue. The introduction gives an overview of these papers and discusses their range of diverse phenomena, both live and recorded, including theatre performances and films, art installations, opera, as well as reading out aloud. By outlining the significance and contribution of different disciplines and fields of studies to the broad area of performance studies, the chapter argues the case for innovative approaches that can extend theories and analyse aesthetic and performative practices in context. With the help of some case studies, it provides guidelines for the reading and interpretation of the several theoretical discussions and practical case studies presented to encourage further multidisciplinary research on these domains.