Children's Rights and the Politics of Food: Big Food Versus Little People

This article traces the battle in the United States during the Obama administration, continuing into the Trump administration, to protect children's rights to food. It explores barriers to development of sound, science‐based food policies, including the refusal to recognize food as a human right, anti‐science denialism, hostility toward government regulation, and relative powerlessness of children. It points to the role of a “Big Food Pyramid” composed of powerful food industry and large scale distribution and marketing interests in blocking sound policies in prenatal and infant nutrition, school lunches, SNAP and WIC, the marketing to children of high fat and fructose‐laden products, and campaigns to increase youth fitness. While predicting a continuing assault at the federal level on children's rights to safe and healthy foods, the article highlights the positive role of consumer demand in shaping marketing, labeling and production of food and opportunities for leaders in the food industry and in government at local, municipal and state levels to continue the battle for sound food policies.     

The Trump Effect,Children, and the Value of Human Rights Education

Since launching his presidential campaign, Donald Trump's rhetoric has often been divisive as well as demeaning of selected groups. This article examines the impact of Trump's rhetoric on children and their communities and explores the role that human rights education can play in responding to Trump and forging broader support for human rights. The article reviews the research on human rights education and considers how human rights education can be embedded in broader efforts to educate children. Using children's literature as a case study, the article argues for the importance of mainstreaming human rights education and meeting children where they are, in order to foster greater recognition of and respect for the rights of all individuals.     

Narcotics and Drug Abuse

Fifty years ago, the U.S. President's Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice saw drugs as a modest but growing problem for the criminal justice system. The reemergence of heroin occupied the Commission's attention. Many recommendations are admirable, such as a focus on public health interventions and a concern about the appropriateness of criminal prohibitions on marijuana use. Throughout the past 50 years, the problem has both massively expanded and changed in many ways; the principal drug of abuse has shifted multiple times, as has the populations most affected by them. Policy, largely stuck on tough enforcement for 30 years, is now moving in a direction more consistent with the Commission's views. Researchers have made only modest advances in understanding what enforcement can do to reduce drug use and related problems, but society has made some progress in developing interventions that have both a sound theoretical base and the promise of avoiding the unintended negative consequences of the highly punitive system of the 1980s and 1990s. A Commission in 2018 would face a much different and larger problem that has transformed many aspects of criminal justice. Investing in more data collection and evaluation research would be among its major recommendations, as would an admission of considerable uncertainty about what to do with the latest twist in the U.S. drug problem, the addition of the much more dangerous fentanyls.     

On the constitutional foundations of Hong Kong

Hong Kong law is characterized by a mixture of legal sources and traditions, originating from the constitutional government-based structure in the mid-1800s to the new laws, which were promulgated at the beginning of the 20th century. Since Hong Kong’s return into the People’s Republic of China in 1997, the development and forms of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Laws have been influenced by the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China of 1982, the Sino-British Joint Declaration of Hong Kong issues of 1984 as well as the Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of 1990. The government of China continues to undertake measures, promoting a high degree of autonomy within the Hong Kong as well as its political stability and economic prosperity. All these measures contribute to the promotion of the rule of law and unification of China.     

联合国刑事司法准则视野下的我国少年司法程序

在《公民权利与政治权利国际公约》以及联合国其他关于少年司法的有关文件中,针对少年犯罪的司法程序有着许多方面的具体规定。以此视野关照中国的少年司法实践, 我国在少年法庭,少年犯的羁押、量型、非刑罚措施,以及少年犯案底和改造方面仍存在一定的问题。如何参照国刑事司法准则,完善我国少年司法程序,以更有效地预防少年犯罪,更地地改造失足少年,是我国批准和实施公约以健全法治所急需思考的问题。     

关于正确定义中国少数民族传统体育文化的研究

为正确定义中国少数民族传统体育文化 ,从民族学、文化学、体育学等多学科角度 ,采用文献法、调查法、逻辑方法展开了研究。得出 :“所谓中国少数民族传统体育文化 ,就是中国 5 5个少数民族在漫长的民族发展历程中 ,本民族原创或虽从其他民族文化中引入 ,但已经历了明显的文化改造、已与本民族文化充分融合、并流传已久的 ,以身体活动为形式 ,以追求身心与精神健康为目的的活动中 ,表现出来的主观意识、客观意识和有意识的行为方式。”     

战俘待遇规则的发展、内容及美国虐囚事件的违法性

近来发生的美军虐囚事件,引发了我们对战俘待遇规则相关问题的思考。本文回顾了战俘待遇规则发展的三个历史阶段,概括了战俘按照1949年《关于保护战俘待遇的日内瓦公约》所应享有的权利,在此基础上对美军虐囚事件的违法性进行了分析。     

《合同法》第121条中“第三人”的理解与适用

为科学界定债务人违约的不同情形,《合同法》第121条对此作了专门规定。但其内涵有待进一步明确。对“第三人”的界定涉及到合同的相对性原理,并在实践上影响合同双方当事人的利益平衡。第三人的范围应采取较为严格的标准,这有经济、公平等方面的考虑。     

“罪无可赦 情有可原”——被害人过错认定的困境与出路

司法实践中,在一些被害人与被告人互动的刑事案中,被害人过错是一个被经常适用的酌定量刑情节,如故意伤害、故意杀人和交通肇事等案件。在刑事司法中考虑被害人过错,有利于对被告人进行准确的定罪量刑,更加公平公正地保障被告人的合法权益,实现社会公平正义。审判实践对于被害人过错由于没有统一的认定标准,法官自由裁量的权限很大,存有司法恣意的嫌疑。究其缘由,除了我国偏重打击和惩罚犯罪的刑事司法理念需要转变之外,主要还在于对被害人过错认定上存在相当的难度和困境,因此,探讨被害人过错的认定标准和规范化很有必要。     

赢家通吃的市场与过度劳动

当前,企业员工超长工作现象普遍存在,尤其是研发人员。究其过劳原因,与赢家通吃的市场不无关系。囚徒困境的分析表明,在赢家通吃的市场,企业必须将员工尤其是研发人员的潜力发挥到极限。而对研发人员来说,赢家通吃的市场激励他们主动超长工作;同时,他们还能从研发工作过程和结果中获得精神满足,因而,研发人员的超长工作带有主动选择的性质。因此,在一个赢家通吃的市场,治理超长工作难度很大,政府通过限制竞争强度可在一定程度上对其加以控制。