Path Dependence and Paradigm Shift: How Cetacean Scientists Learned to Develop Management Procedures that Survived the Controversial Whaling Regime

The transformation of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) into a preservationist regime met with extremely fierce opposition from the prowhaling countries and created an unprecedented and famous polarization of the IWC parties into pro and antiwhaling camps, which can be observed even today. In such a bipolar and harsh process, it would be typically argued that scientific advice would be powerless because it would become subject to heightened scrutiny from both camps resulting in endless technical debate. Our case shows that, on the contrary, the advisory scientists learned to successfully develop a scientific management procedure that was accepted by both the pro and antiwhaling camps. The objective of this paper is to explain this process and examine to what extent collective learning in the assessment process affected the political effectiveness of the management procedure and, more broadly thereby, to contribute to the groundwork of analyzing how the scientists participating in the scientific assessments collectively learn. With a view to cross‐fertilization between institutionalism and science and technology study (STS) approaches, we develop an analytical framework and apply it to the international whaling regime to examine the usefulness of it and provide some general lessons to be learned for making learning assessments more effective. The framework was capable of showing that path dependency and paradigm shift were among the key factors of the scientific assessment's increased effectiveness. Overall, the cross‐fertilization between institutionalism and STS appears to be a fruitful way forward for the next generation of scientific assessment studies.     

European Commission merger control: Combining competition and the creation of larger European firms

The article examines the European Commission's use of its legal powers over mergers. It discusses and tests two views. One is that the ‘neoliberal’ Commission has ended previous industrial policies of aiding ‘national champion’ firms to grow through mergers and instead pursues a ‘merger‐constraining’ policy of vigorously using its legal powers to block mergers. The other is that the Commission follows an ‘integrationist policy’ of seeking the development of larger European firms to deepen economic integration. It examines Commission decisions under the 1989 EC Merger Regulation between 1990 and 2009. It selects three major sectors that are ‘likely’ for the ‘merger‐constraining’ view – banking, energy and telecommunications – and analyses a dataset of almost 600 Commission decisions and then individual merger cases. It finds that the Commission has approved almost all mergers, including by former ‘national champion’ firms. There have been only two prohibitions over 20 years in the three sectors and the outcome has been the creation of larger European firms through mergers. It explains how the Commission can pursue an integrationist policy through the application of competition processes and criteria. The wider implication is that the Commission can combine competition policy with achieving the ‘industrial policy’ aim of aiding the development of larger European firms.     

The Malta Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting: The Commonwealth’s New Beginnings?

This article argues that the Commonwealth needs to speak with a distinctive voice on a range of issues confronting the world, failing which it will lose its relevance. This calls for inspirational and strong leadership and a clear focus on the organisation’s charter. Among the concrete proposals suggested by the article for the reinvigoration of the Commonwealth is the establishment of a Commission for Democracy, the Rule of Law and Human Rights inspired by the model of the Council of Europe Venice Commission.     

幸福测量探析与经济发展方式的转向——斯蒂格利茨委员会报告“经济与社会”共建理念的解读

经济增长的目标是发展,而幸福则是经济发展的终极目标。"民生、尊严与幸福"议题在2011年两会得以彰显,在对幸福测量研究综述之上,笔者提出了自己的幸福测量观,并经由对呼吁幸福社会建设"斯蒂格利茨-森-菲图西委员会报告"的解读去体察个中所内含的经济发展方式的转向,即在新转型时代,除了"生产性产出"的经济绩效之外,更要注重立足于为民众谋幸福的社会进步。     

Challenge of Firearms Control in a Free Society

Chapter 10 of The Challenge of Crime in a Free Society, titled “Control of Firearms,” is a brief but strong statement in support of regulating gun transactions, possession, and carrying, with several specific recommendations, including the adoption of universal gun registration and permit‐to‐purchase requirements. The U.S. President's Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice, when writing the chapter, had no systematic research to draw on. Since its publication in 1967, the field of gun violence has become an active area of research, and much has been learned. But the nation has become far more polarized politically during the last 50 years, and gun policy has become a rigidly partisan issue. A new commission would have great difficulty reaching consensus, although there may be common ground on regulating guns vis‐à‐vis mental illness and domestic violence.     

浅析我国行纪制度的发展困境及对策

在我国《合同法》引入了类似英美的隐名代理和不公开本人身份的代理的合同委托制度后 ,作为大陆法系特有的行纪制度在发展中面临着一系列困境。本文综合相关问题出现的原因 ,提出我国行纪制度要保持独立性并获得发展 ,必须解决不同法系理念的整合问题、确定行纪与非显名代理的区分标准并且弥补现有立法的不足。随后提出了一系列对策 ,主张目前应理顺代理与行纪的关系 ,积累司法实践经验并加强商事单行法的制定工作。     

At the Walls of Athens: What Remains?

In this contribution, the author takes as his starting point two paintings by Poussin on the subject of The Death of Phocion and their (aesthetic) implications for subjectivity and a contemporary politics. Focusing on the South African context, he makes use of the metaphor of the wall (or hedge), as representative of both the politics of oppression (in the case of Van Riebeeck’s hedge of bitter almonds in Kirstenbosch Gardens, Cape Town) as well as the politics of reconciliation (in the case of The Wall of Names in Freedom Park, Pretoria). The wall is consequently related to the transformative role of mourning in what he refers to as a politics that comes after—a politics that itself depends on a disruption of the traditional model of rational politics depicted in the Poussin paintings by the brightly-lit walls and buildings of Athens. In this regard the author defends an ethico-politics of unboundedness where the wall no longer primarily functions as a cipher of exclusion or a stable inside/outside but, in addition, comes to stand as a marker of the radical disruption of a politics founded in subjectivity. Here the author refers to the ongoing interruption of the South African political landscape by the return of the remains which highlights the significant transformative relationship between mourning and democracy.

Narrative dynamics in European Commission AI policy—Sensemaking,agency construction,and anchoring

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is arguably one of the most powerful and disruptive technologies of our times which may pose challenges as well as opportunities to contemporary political organizations. Studying AI from a lens of perceived uncertainty, this article studies the policy response of the European Commission toward this fast-paced emerging technology. By empirically focusing on the Commission's policy process from start to end, from initial communication to concrete proposal, the article shows how different types of narratives are used to construct the new policy area of AI policy. A novel theoretical framework is constructed building on a combination of narrative organizational studies and narrative policy studies, displaying how narratives play a key role in organizational sensemaking, agency construction and anchoring. The paper finds that the Commission broadly makes sense of AI technologies with a future-oriented discourse, establishes agency to existing and new forms of political organizing and anchors the policy response within the overarching frame of the EU single market policy. The main contribution of the paper is that it shows how political organizations settles uncertainty through narratives and sketches a way forward through establishing policy goals and anchoring them within pre-existing lines of political mobilization.     

监察委员会办理职务犯罪案件程序问题研究——以768份裁判文书为例

根据监察委员会成立以来法院作出的768份裁判文书的实证研究,职务犯罪案件委托律师辩护率高;留置期限整体较长、解除留置后逮捕率高;认罪认罚从宽制度和速裁程序适用率低;非法证据排除难;定案以言词证据为主,证据之间相互“印证”成为此类案件典型的办案模式。在具体操作中,还存在与刑事诉讼法衔接不畅的问题。基于此,应当保障辩护律师介入的时间和诉讼权利;提高留置措施的适用标准;明确职务犯罪案件中认罪认罚从宽制度适用标准和同步录音录像资料的调取、出示程序;庭审中应当贯彻直接言词原则,加强证据审核,建立证人、鉴定人和调查人员出庭作证机制。     

A European response to non-compliance: the Commission’s enforcement efforts and the Common European Asylum System

This article aims at systematically analysing the European Commission’s effort to enforce compliance with the Common European Asylum System (CEAS). In recent years, human rights organisations have increasingly denounced EU member states’ violations of the right to asylum and accused the EU of turning a blind eye to non-compliance with the CEAS. Although the primary responsibility to implement EU law lies with member states, the Commission ought to assist them and enforce violated legislation. How exactly does the Commission react to member states’ non-compliance with the CEAS? What can be inferred from these insights? By using infringement data, policy documents, and complementary interviews, the article scrutinises which of the available instruments are applied de facto. Subsequently, the findings are critically discussed, suggesting that the Commission prefers capacity-enhancing instruments and is rather tentative in using instruments to increase member states’ willingness to comply.