Due North? Do American Theories of Legislative Committees Apply to Canada?

Several theories of legislative organisation have been proposed to explain committee selection in American legislatures, but do these theories travel outside the United States? This paper tests whether these theories apply to data from the Canadian House of Commons. It was found that the distributive and partisan models of legislative organisation explain committee composition in Canada. In many cases, committees in the House of Commons are made up of preference outliers. As predicted by partisan models, it was also found that the governing party stacks committees with its members, but this is conditional upon the strength of the governing party.     

Domestic adjustment costs,interdependence and dissent in the Council of the European Union

Liberal international relations theory posits that the behaviour of states is affected both by domestic interests and other states with which they are linked in significant patterns of interdependence. This article examines the relevance of this proposition to states' behaviour in the most powerful institution in the furthest reaching example of regional integration in the world today: the Council of the European Union. Compared to previous research, more detailed evidence is analysed in this article on the substance of the political debates that preceded Council votes. It is found that states' disagreement with both discretionary and nondiscretionary decision outcomes affects the likelihood that they dissent at the voting stage. Moreover, in line with the theory posited here, the behaviour of states' significant trading partners has a particularly marked effect on the likelihood that they will dissent.     

清初关中李念慈诗论的时代精神

李念慈为清代关中诗人,其诗学理论继承了中国古代诗论如"诗本性情"、"文以明道"、"江山之助"、"诗穷而工"等许多优秀思想,并将其赋予了新的内涵,和清初文艺思潮紧密联系,具有鲜明的时代精神。他不但重视作家的人格修养,而且强调文学的社会功能和认识价值,有着积极的用世精神。其诗歌理论兼容并包,内涵丰富,体系严密,在清初诗论中独具特色,值得学界重视。     

我国民事诉讼法原则在新时期的完善

民事诉讼实践经验显示,民事诉讼制度与我国经济社会迅速发展对民事诉讼的法治要求有诸多不适应。民事诉讼法的发展离不开民事诉讼原则指导和引领,要发展民事诉讼制度,应当先拓展民事诉讼原则,将现代法治同法律与时俱进的发展精神相结合,将以人本精神作为民事诉讼宗旨纳入民事诉讼原则,使民事诉讼法在新原则指引下发展成为具备自新能力的法律系统。因此,更新民事诉讼法原则,创新民事诉讼法律自我创新机制势在必行。     

When Territory Matters: Parliamentary Profiles and Legislative Behaviour in Italy (1987–2008)

This paper ponders the question of whether Members of Parliaments' (MPs) previous experiences and personal attributes may have any impact on the way they behave once elected. In agreement with a recent stream of literature, the authors hypothesise that MPs with strong territorial roots might behave as agents of the local community, promoting its interests and demands in their parliamentary activity. The assertion that individual biographies influence legislative activity in parliamentary democracies runs counter to the commonly held view that in this kind of institutional setting, legislative assemblies are dominated by parties, leaving little room for individually oriented behaviour and little incentive to do anything that is not coordinated by party organisations. The article builds an original ‘index of localness’, the main independent variable, based on the place of birth and previous political experience at local level of MPs. Then, taking into account territorially targeted Private Members' Bills as a proxy for the territorial behaviour of each legislator, the hypothesis is tested by looking at both aggregate evidence and individual-level data. Aggregate data support the hypothesis, as they show a monotonically increasing relationship between the two variables: the more a legislator is linked to his/her territory, the more (on average) he/she will sponsor bills concerning the local area. Individual-level data confirm this finding, as the correlation between the two variables also holds when entering a number of control variables.     

Protesters,Parliamentarians, Policymakers: The Experiences of Australian Green MPs

This article details the distinctive style and political commitments that Green members of parliament (MPs) bring to representative democracy in Australia. Based on in-depth interviews with 16 sitting federal and state Green MPs, it examines the extent to which the political culture, grassroots organisation and values of this left-libertarian party influence the parliamentary role orientations and legislative behaviour of its MPs, and how this fits with existing research on parliamentary representatives. The analysis reveals mixed results: while the legislative priorities and representative focus of MPs appear to be influenced more by previous social movement and parliamentary experience rather than overarching party orientations, the party's culture has had a strong impact on MPs' views regarding issues of conscience and their style of representation. Drawing on the comparative experience of Green parties throughout Western Europe, this article utilises the prism of role orientations to assess the conflicting imperatives Australian Green MPs face in staying true to their movement origins while their party becomes increasingly professional and influential in the parliamentary arena.     

More than Rubber-Stamps: The Consequences Produced by Legislatures in Non-Democratic States beyond Latent Legitimation

Despite various works suggesting the contrary, legislatures in non-democratic states are overwhelmingly generalised as ‘rubber-stamps’ that provide nothing other than latent legitimacy for those in power. Based on examination of legislatures in 10 of the world's most undemocratic states this paper highlights their capacity to act in precisely the opposite manner, serving to empower citizens, strengthen opposition groups and weaken dictatorial regimes. Whilst recognising that legislatures can be manipulated and subjugated by such regimes, the article seeks to highlight the variations between legislatures and the need to take account of their true potential.     

Disentangling legislative duration in coalitional presidential systems

ABSTRACT

The speed and actions that bills face in legislatures vary immensely, but we do not have a comprehensive framework to analyse legislative durations. Moreover, the absence of data detailing legislative activities and durations in distinct stages of legislative processes hinders analysis. This article presents a framework for analysing legislative delay in coalitional presidential systems and examines unique data on durations, attributes, and parliamentary activities in legislative processes at the level of individual proposals. The empirical analysis investigates executive proposals considered by the Brazilian Congress and seeks to disentangle when duration means legislative activism, when it is due to political conflict, and when it only represents inertia. Our analysis indicates substantial activities in both content-influencing legislative activism and politically motivated obstructionism. Hence, political conflict is as important a source as policy disagreement in accounting for legislative delay. By examining a hitherto untapped area with rich data, this study opens up new venues for rigorous analyses of legislative durations and gridlock.     

“基本法律”与“基本法律以外的其他法律”划分之反思

从法律文本和立宪意图分析,全国人大只能制定和修改"基本法律"、"基本法律以外的其他法律"由全国人大常委会制定和修改。弥补全国人大立法不足是现行《宪法》赋予全国人大常委会国家立法权的首要目标,而防范全国人大常委会侵夺全国人大立法权则是其附带的要求,这二者之间并非平行的目标关系;"基本法律"和"基本法律以外的其他法律"的划分,正是这种附带要求的产物。实践中,全国人大与全国人大常委会立法权限的错位以及两种不同的"法律"在效力上的混同,根源于人民代表大会制度下人大与其常委会之间权力关系在制度层面与实践层面存在的张力。     

数罪并罚中的刑事立法政策问题探析

调高数罪并罚总和刑期,其主要立法价值就是要协调数罪并罚的总和刑期与最终确定的数罪并罚总和刑期两者间的合理关系,这首先应当遵循刑事立法政策的合理性原则。虽然不能完全排除数罪并罚刑期的调高与“死刑过重、生刑过轻”存在直接关系,但也不能由“死刑过重、生刑过轻”的缺陷直接得出数罪并罚刑期总和应当调高的必然结论。《刑法修正案（八）》修正数罪并罚总和刑期的结果,可谓是“重刑化”和“轻刑化”折衷的适中,是刑事立法政策在数罪并罚立法条款上的体现。