Naming the Pacific

Abstract

A conventional explanation for the establishment of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) holds that it was an attempt on the part of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to maintain US military engagement in Asia while tactically promoting cooperative relations with China in the post-Cold War era. This line of argument is associated with realism and neoliberalism. This article maintains that such an explanation is unsatisfactory, and seeks to offer a sounder explanation by employing a constructivist perspective. It argues that the interests and policies of the ASEAN countries which had led them to initiate the ARF were defined by what can be regarded as a norm of security cooperation in Asia. This norm contains two sets of ideational elements. The first is common security thinking fostered in the Conference for Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE). Such thinking emphasizes efforts to achieve the security of the whole region through multilateral security cooperation, on the basis of the view that regional security is indivisible. The second element is a set of diplomatic norms associated with the ASEAN Way of diplomacy, which underline the Southeast Asian countries' commitment to the habit of dialogue and consultation. Today, the nature of the ARF may be disputed. Critics of the ARF assert that it is a mere ‘talking shop’ in which no significant measure to achieve security has been carried out. Yet only by understanding thoroughly the establishment process of the forum can a fair assessment be made of its significance. The research in this article concludes that the ARF should be seen as an arena for the development and practice of norms – in other words, a ‘norm brewery’.     

论婚姻忠诚协议之法律效力——与梁慧星教授商榷

近年来,有关＂夫妻忠诚协议＂法律效力的认定问题成为学界新的讨论热点,我国法院在实践中做法的差异很大。从法律适用逻辑的角度来看,婚姻作为一种制度化的特殊法律行为,不能比照适用一般法律行为规则或契约规则。＂夫妻忠诚协议＂并没有得到现行实定法的认可,故不具有法律效力。而违反婚姻忠实义务应负侵权责任,双方通过协议约定损害赔偿数额的行为不合法。进而,从法社会学层面来检视现行法规定,此类协议的有效性有违现代法律精神,缺乏正当性依据。     

准用性法律中非正式规范识别机制构建导论

准用性法律广泛存在于我国中央和地方的立法中。当准用性法律所指涉的准用规范是习惯、道德等非正式规范时,适用它们就可能引发一系列关联着非正式规范识别问题的争议。当前,理论界和实务界对这些可能的争议,往往采取无视或否视的姿态;即便偶有论者关注,也主要是针对个案或个别规范提出一些具体的实体性建议,而实际上,考虑到其大量存在,因而首先应给予这个问题更多的关注;并且,对非正式规范识别问题的解决,更应采取一种程序主义的进路。因此,应尽快启动对准用性法律中非正式规范识别的程序性机制的构建工作。     

On the margins of soy farms: traditional populations and selective environmental policies in the Brazilian Cerrado

In the Cerrado, the expansion of soybean cultivation since the 1990s has coincided with the strengthening of environmental regulations. We analyze how the two main environmental policies – Protected Areas and the Forest Code – have played out at the ground level in western Bahia state. These policies in Cerrado have not been designed to curb the expansion of this agricultural frontier. These norms have, on the contrary, accommodated this expansion because the way environmental managers selectively choose environmental problems and publicize them through specific information systems depreciates traditional fire-dependent production systems. These ‘politics of selection’ are likely to increase competition for resources in the margins of soybean agriculture, which is where traditional populations have now become confined.     

Identifying intentions: Latvian policy-makers’ perceptions of Russia’s intentions

There is much disagreement on the specific aspects of behavior that are the most useful for estimating intentions of potential adversaries. One view is that military capabilities are the most useful. Alternative views consider that an adversary’s domestic politics, or symbolic-normative aspects of its behavior, contain valuable information for assessing its intentions. This article tests these three competing views on Latvia as a case study, based on in-depth interviews with 10 high-ranking decision-makers. The article concludes that although the interviewees regarded information on the potential adversary’s military capabilities to be crucial for inferring its intentions, other indicators were also regarded as important.     

Resource Priority,Fairness, and Equality-Efficiency Compromises

A central issue in theories of social justice is the potential conflict between equality and efficiency in the distribution of resources. We suggest here that resource priority is a key factor that moderates the perceived fairness of equality/efficiency compromises in resource allocation. Participants were presented with scenarios involving a policy change that pitted equality against economic efficiency in the allocation of a variety of resources that differed in their importance levels (basic versus non-basic). We found that participants gave more weight to efficiency considerations at the expense of equality in distributing non-basic (higher-level) resources than in distributing basic resources. We discuss the priority hypothesis in connection with norms of justice, human motives, the need hierarchy (deficiency versus growth needs), the consumption of basic versus non-basic resources, and the legitimacy of allocation policies. The paper is based on portions of doctoral research conducted by Eviathar Matania under the supervision of Ilan Yaniv.     

刑事违法性判断前提条件：空白罪状的现状与反思

空白罪状是成文法系国家突破以往在刑法中只规定自然犯的传统,越来越多地规定法定犯的必然结果。作为刑事违法判断前提条件,空白罪状对罪与非罪的界定具有重要的作用。我国新刑法创空白罪状历史最高,然其空白规范位阶相差悬殊,因此有必要从罪刑法定角度关注空白罪状及其规范的位阶问题,以增强空白罪状作为“违法性判断的前提条件”的规范性和统一性。     

Pax Americana: Bumping into Diplomatic Culture

The existence of a deeply rooted, state-based diplomatic culture with its own distinctive institutions, values, and norms has been neglected in both the study and the practice of international relations, especially in the United States. This neglect has had consequences in recent years, notably in connection with the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Using Iraq as a case study, I argue that the United States transgressed five norms of diplomatic culture that are widely accepted: the use of force only as last resort, transparency, continuous dialogue, multilateralism, and civility. Criticisms of these transgressions and the US responses to these criticisms suggest that even a paramount America cannot avoid diplomatic culture's pervasive influence.     

村民自治背景下的“村两委”关系探讨

本文在对村民自治中一些地方出现的村两委关系不协调的问题、成因进行分析的基础上,从实现村党组织领导功能转换、加强村组织规范化建设、完善规范有序的制度化建设三个层面提出了规范协调村两委工作关系的对策。     

领导干部职业道德规范体系的基本构成

在全面建设小康社会和构建和谐社会的过程中,加强领导干部职业道德建设要在全心全意为人民服务的基本道德原则下进行,同时也应建立与之相适应的具体道德规范。