Plugging the Prisoner Finance Gap: A Critical Analysis of Financial Support for Newly-Released Prisoners

Abstract: The prison discharge grant is intended to meet prisoners' immediate needs on release and assist with living costs prior to their receiving their first benefit payment. It has been widely criticised for providing inadequate financial support, leaving prisoners with a gap in their finances on release. This article discusses the extent to which recent policy developments have been effective in closing this gap. The analysis is based on data from a longitudinal qualitative study of 40 prisoners who were tracked over a six-month period following their release from prison. This research shows that despite new policy initiatives the prisoner finance gap remains.     

中国法院的量刑程序改革

由最高法院推进的量刑程序改革目前正在全国部分法院进行试点。试点方案遵循依法、合理性与可操作性兼顾、公正与效率兼顾等原则,根据不同类型案件的特点,尝试采用不同的方法将量刑纳入法庭审理程序,以保障量刑活动的相对独立性。当前,我国的量刑程序改革面临着一些现实的问题和困难,同时,法院自身的特点决定了由其推动的量刑程序改革也存在一定的局限性。     

论混合型行政性垄断及其规制

混合型行政性垄断业已成为我国行政性垄断的常态之一。混合型行政性垄断系指基于抽象行政性垄断而生成的具体行政性垄断行为或者状态。其构成要件可分为必要的构成要件和辅助性的构成要素,其表现形态甚为复杂。新近一年来,频发的混合型行政性垄断诸种事例,充分表明了混合型行政性垄断是由行政机关滥用行政权力而直接或间接地产生,并受到行政权力的持续支持与保护。对此,我们应当以依法行使行政权为核心,从行政组织法、程序法和救济法角度加以全面规制,反混合型行政性垄断的制度建设任重而道远。     

“知识创作物未保护领域”之思维模式的陷阱

自现代知识产权法诞生以来,基于强化和拓展知识产权保护以涵盖各种未保护的知识创作物的理论观念,知识创作物未保护领域的界线就不断遭到突破。但这种理论观念的主要问题在于它们脱离了人类行为的实际模式。任何合理的知识产权法和政策必须注重人类行为的具体模式——即调整人类活动的连接点,因而法律和政策没有必要调整所有知识创作物的利用行为,知识产权只能限制某些人类行为。为了避免可能的缺陷,知识产权法的制定者既应当考虑影响知识产权法制定的实际因素,比如制定过程中经常出现的利益不均衡现象,也应当考虑其应用和实际的效果。     

德国辩诉交易的实践与启示

在德国,辩诉交易制度完全是实践中自发的产物。德国辩诉交易实践的形态、产生、争论及相关司法判决和改革草案的分析表明,辩诉交易已经成为德国解决刑事案件的方式之一,这种方式的出现回应了德国刑事诉讼的特点及其面临的困境,同时也缩小了两大诉讼模式的差距,呈现了世界范围内体系差异而解决方式一致的诉讼规律。德国辩诉交易实践表明,在我国建立基于被告人认罪而迅速结案继而获得刑罚减轻的结案方式成为可能。     

税收国家及其法治构造

现代国家源起于现代意义的税收,税所具有的公共对价性、非营利性与国家的民主法治性结合而成税收国家,税收国家必须反映公共目的及国家目的的两个面向。没有税收国家,就不可能有以经济自由为中心的实质法治国家;反之,税收国家须营造一个完善法治的构造。税收国家的法律主义、平等主义和人权主义原则起源于财政民主理念,以此为导引完善财政立宪制度、财政分权制度和相关程序制度,由此为税收国家权力运作设定一个起码的边界。     

公司利益缺失下的利益冲突规则——基于法律文本和实践的反思

中国公司法不断完善着利益冲突的规则,其对公司实践的重要性毋庸置疑。但由于公司法受制于国有企业改革,同时在法律思维中采用权利界定方式而不是利益保护方式,现行的利益冲突规则更多表现为规制式、事前禁止的模式,同时更多地将权力上收给了股东,在法律责任上依赖于归入权,强调公司所有权而忽略了公司利益。本文回顾了利益冲突规则的引入,对现行规则中的疏漏进行了分析和批评,并结合已有的司法实践分析公司利益在法律调整中的淡化,并对这种原因进行了理论探讨。     

The Oslo Peace Process and Two Views on Judaism and Zionism, 1992–1996

The article contends that the Oslo Peace process was as much about Jewish identity in Israel as it was about borders and security. This is because these factors are interrelated. This made the peace process highly contentious, particularly because it happened when post-Zionism was at its peak. While Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres saw Oslo as the fulfillment of Zionism, the religious right saw it as negating Zionism. This is because the Oslo process involved a change in three precepts of Zionism: Greater Israel, self-defence and pioneering settlement. This difference of opinion was compounded by the way Rabin managed relations with his critics on the religious-right. The conclusion notes how the collapse of Oslo has led to a reversion to pre-Oslo Jewish world view.     

DXAGE: A New Method for Age at Death Estimation Based on Femoral Bone Mineral Density and Artificial Neural Networks

Age at death estimation in adult skeletons is hampered, among others, by the unremarkable correlation of bone estimators with chronological age, implementation of inappropriate statistical techniques, observer error, and skeletal incompleteness or destruction. Therefore, it is beneficial to consider alternative methods to assess age at death in adult skeletons. The decrease in bone mineral density with age was explored to generate a method to assess age at death in human remains. A connectionist computational approach, artificial neural networks, was employed to model femur densitometry data gathered in 100 female individuals from the Coimbra Identified Skeletal Collection. Bone mineral density declines consistently with age and the method performs appropriately, with mean absolute differences between known and predicted age ranging from 9.19 to 13.49 years. The proposed method—DXAGE—was implemented online to streamline age estimation. This preliminary study highlights the value of densitometry to assess age at death in human remains.     

Forensic intoxication with clobazam: HPLC/DAD/MSD analysis

Clobazam (Castillium, Urbanil), a benzodiazepine often used as an anxiolytic and in the treatment of epilepsy, is considered a relatively safe drug. The authors present a fatal case with a 49-year-old female, found dead at home. She had been undergoing psychiatric treatment and was a chronic alcoholic. The autopsy findings were unremarkable, except for multivisceral congestion, steatosis and a small piece of a plastic blister pack in the stomach. Bronchopneumonia, bronchitis and bronchiolitis were also diagnosed. Anhigh-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC)/diode array detector (DAD)/mass spectrometry detection (MSD) with electrospray method was developed in order to detect, confirm and quantify clobazam in the post-mortem samples. In the chromatographic separation, a reversed-phase column C18 (2.1 x 150 mm, 3.5 microm) was used with a mobile phase of methanol and water, at a 0.25 ml/min flow rate. Carbonate buffer (pH 10.5) and 20 microl of prazepam (100 microg/ml) as internal standard were added to the samples. A simple and reliable liquid-liquid extraction method for the determination of clobazam in post-mortem samples was described. Calibration curves for clobazam were performed in blood, achieving linearity between 0.01 and 10 microg/ml and a detection limit of 1.0 ng/ml. The clobazam concentration found in post-mortem blood was 3.9 microg/ml, higher than the reported therapeutic concentration (0.1-0.4 microg/ml). The simultaneous acquisition by photodiode array detection and mass spectrometry detection results allowed benzodiazepines to be identified with sufficient certainty. An examination of all the available information suggested that death resulted from respiratory depression due to clobazam toxicity.