"政治伊斯兰"现象解析

近年来,穆斯林世界中伊斯兰教政治化的现象格外突出,不仅冲击着穆斯林国家中的世俗政权,而且不时地与“西方文明”发生激烈的摩擦和碰撞,已经引起各国政界及学术界的密切关注。美国知名学者格雷厄姆·E·富勒在其2003年出版的专著《政治伊斯兰的未来》中对此进行了入微分析。现将该书的主要内容综合介绍如下:何谓“政治伊斯兰”“政治伊斯兰”(“PoliticalIslam”或“Islamism”)是伊斯兰教政治化的直接产物,即“伊斯兰教中的政治”或“政治中的伊斯兰教”。严格地讲,伊斯兰教只是一种宗教信仰,并不具备政治意识形态的特性。然而,由于宗教…     

Protecting health information privacy in research: what's an ethics committee like yours doing in a job like this?

The Commonwealth and State legislation designed to protect the privacy of personal health information has attracted the criticism that the constraints imposed on the use of the information in research obstructs that research. A central and common feature of the legislation is the reliance upon the review by human research ethics committees of research that proposes to use personal health information for research without prior consent from those whose information it is. The origins of this reliance are explored and explained and it is suggested that this has proved to be an inappropriate policy choice. The extension of the reliance is then described and the conceptual, procedural, workload and structural consequences of requiring these voluntary committees to conform to legislative standards of review of issues of the public interest are critically examined. In recent reviews of the Commonwealth legislation, there is recognition of the underlying uncertainty as to the appropriate balance between protection of personal privacy and the promotion of beneficial research. In the further exploration of these matters that those reviews recommended, a close and critical examination of the wisdom of continuing to rely on ethics committees is needed.     

The Emergence of Environmental Concerns: Hydroelectric Schemes in Scotland

Regulating the environmental impacts of hydroelectric schemesis of increasing importance in the light of the strong policydrive towards expanding the proportion of energy gained fromrenewable sources. Yet hydroelectric schemes are significantin another way. They provide an unusual example of a technologythat has changed little over the last 100 years and thus offersa real opportunity to judge the impact of a changing regulatoryclimate. In Scotland, three distinct phases can be detected.Earlier controls focussed on the protection of private interests,especially fishing rights, with authorisations secured throughPrivate Acts of Parliament. This was followed by a period wherepromotion of such schemes lay with public bodies; though undergeneral statutory duties, ultimately the balancing of environmentaland other interests lay with such bodies who acted with fewexternal controls. Privatisation of electricity generation in1989, coupled with the growing development of relevant EuropeanCommunity legislation, dramatically shifted the regulatory balances.Environmental Assessment requirements and now the obligationsof the Water Framework Directive have substantially alteredthe concept and scope of environmental concerns in this field.