美国的无罪裁决——从1989年到2003年

在1989年8月14日,伊利诺斯州芝加哥市库克郡巡回法院宣布1979年加利·多特森(GaryDotson)强奸案件的判决无效,并撤销了定罪裁决。多特森先生在监狱中服刑达10年之久,后来得到了假释,他并不是美国历史上第一个被无罪释放的无辜的囚犯。但是,该案是美国刑事司法历史上的一个转折点:他是第一个受益于 DNA 鉴定技术而被无罪释放的罪犯。该案掀开了美国刑事司法系统改革的帷幕。在此前,针对被错误定罪的被告作出无罪释放的裁决被视为是反常的情况。但是自从1989年以来,这种少有的事变成了一种令人不安的常见的情况。本研究报告旨在研究美国从1989年到2003年期间所作出的无罪裁决。通过调查那些作出无罪释     

DEPENDENCY COURT MEDIATION

This article discusses the roles and levels of participation of the various participants in juvenile and dependency court mediation, and also examines potential gains and losses associated with participation for family members and the social worker.     

Constitutional democracy and the legitimacy of judicial review

It has long been argued that the institution of judicial review is incompatible with democratic institutions. This criticism usually relies on a procedural conception of democracy, according to which democracy is essentially a form of government defined by equal political rights and majority rule. I argue that if we see democracy not just as a form of government, but more basically as a form of sovereignty, then there is a way to conceive of judicial review as a legitimate democratic institution. The conception of democracy that stems from the social contract tradition of Locke, Rousseau, Kant and Rawls, is based in an ideal of the equality, independence, and original political jurisdiction of all citizens. Certain equal basic rights, in addition to equal political rights, are a part of democratic sovereignty. In exercising their constituent power at the level of constitutional choice, free and equal persons could choose judicial review as one of the constitutional mechanisms for protecting their equal basic rights. As such, judicial review can be seen as a kind of shared precommitment by sovereign citizens to maintaining their equal status in the exercise of their political rights in ordinary legislative procedures. I discuss the conditions under which judicial review is appropriate in a constitutional democracy. This argument is contrasted with Hamilton's traditional argument for judicial review, based in separation of powers and the nature of judicial authority. I conclude with some remarks on the consequences for constitutional interpretation.I am indebted to John Rawls and Burton Dreben for their helpful advice and their comments on an earlier draft of this paper.     

Action oriented strategic planning: The concepts of infrastructure and functional domains

The problem is how to translate limited and uncertain knowledge about the future environment into operational strategic policy decisions. Because the strategic policy decisions must be made with a long time perspective in mind (10 to 10 years), planners tend to formulate strategies which are overly broad. A solution to the broad and uncertain approach is to employ a system that relys upon the use of the infrastructure. When the infrastructure is divided into permanent and complete societal functions, then specific opportunities can be presented to the organization. Examples of functional domains that may be relevant to strategic long-range planning are: industrial capabilities, pieces of legislation, regulation and training. Our knowledge about evolving world trends is usually available in functional terminology (i.e., the evolving “information society”, the “leisure society”, the “energy crisis”, and the “food crisis”, etc.) Knowledge about the future behavior of the Functional Domains may enable organizations such as governments and/or corporations, to create the required infrastructure for capitalizing on possible opportunities.     

POLICY RESPONSES TO CITIZEN ATTITUDES

Though many studies have provided only limited support for the idea of policymaker "responsiveness," the present study indicates that constituents do have some impact on public policy decisions, though not directly. With the aid of data on decisionmaking of country property appraisers in Florida, I was able to demonstrate that constituency preferences affect policy decisions indirectly through the effect of decisionmaker attitudes, thus suggesting an intervening model of decisionmaking.
Specifically, I found that constituency tax preferences impacted on property appraiser tax attitude and through it on the property assessment ratio. More importantly, I was able to isolate some of the potential factors which accentuate those relationships posited by an intervening model of decisionmaking. In particular, I found that the more policymakers (the property appraisers) were immersed into their social and political context or engaged in "social interaction" activities the more likely they and their own attitudes were to be influenced by prevailing constituency tax sentiment.     

White on rights and claims

Professor White maintains that claims neither imply nor are implied by rights. Substantially the opposite may be shown to be the case —that, very briefly, to make a claim implies some sort of right while to have a right always involves something at least claimable or, more usually, actually claimed.     

STATE FINANCE AND TAXING POLICIES

The states have moved through three distinct periods in finance and taxing policies. First, until the 1930s, states dominated over congress in taxing powers. During the Great Depression, many programs were initiated which involved the states in close grant-in-aid arrangements with the federal government. A second period was initiated during the 1960s. when the number of federally-funded grants exploded. States were soon involved in a variety of new responsibilities. This period has now been supplemented by a third, which is characterized by tax reductions and spending limits, often imposed through referenda.