社会环境的变化对警察执法公信力的影响

当前我国正处于社会转型的关键时期,公安工作所面临的政治、经济、法律、文化等各方面的环境发生了深刻的变化.近年来,我国警察执法公信力之所以受到各方的关注,其原因不仅在于公安机关本身,还在于公安工作所面临的外部环境发生了变化,如行政权力干预、民生问题、公众的认知、新闻媒体的报道等都会对警察执法公信力产生影响.     

羁押视角下的刑事一审审限制度改革

审限问题,既传统又现代,既有中国特色又有比较法视角。传统是因为审限制度可上溯至唐代,而经过历史大浪淘沙至今仍然存在于我国刑事诉讼法当中可表明其具有现代性。纵览其他国家刑事诉讼法,虽鲜有规定审限制度的,但却存在与我国审限制度功能相类似的快速审理制度。近年来,由于超期羁押和刑事审判压力双重作用,刑事一审审限制度的存废问题再次引起学界关注,理论和实证研究成果不断涌现,但保留论者和废除论者各执一词,不相上下。但综观研究成果,均将审限制度的研究局限在法院审理阶段,没有从刑事诉讼的整体出发推动审限制度的改革。本文从刑事诉讼的价值选择和刑事诉讼各机关的权力配置出发,以羁押为视角,分四部分进行讨论。第一部分指出刑事一审审限制度改革迫在眉睫;第二部分指出羁押的存在使刑事一审审限的存在成为必要;第三部分介绍当前相关改革建议并加以分析;最后提出刑事诉讼整体结构下的刑事一审审限制度改革建议。     

‘I do not have the means to speak:’ educating youth for citizenship in post-conflict Liberia

Although policymakers stress the importance of education in promoting peace, little research examines the ways that schools prepare students affected by conflict to participate in the restoration of peace in their political community. Post-conflict societies experience severe challenges in strengthening political processes and social cohesion. This paper discusses citizenship education at a school run by a non-governmental organization near Monrovia, Liberia, examining the implemented curriculum in an 8th grade civics classroom. The paper details the ways that young people expressed civic critiques within the classroom, and provides a counterstory to narratives of harsh and violent educational environments in the region. This classroom was a space where students and their teacher engaged in talk about contentious issues: students discussed corruption and injustice, and highlighted the relationship between economic and political power. I argue that if the goal of education is to produce engaged, effective citizens, teachers should have pedagogic support to confront the differences between the implemented curriculum and students’ lived experiences. Peace education in such contexts must include equipping students to seek justice. Furthermore, because possibilities for civic education are embedded in students’ local and national contexts, current global civic education initiatives must be adaptive to local realities.     

Boko Haram and the discourse of mimicry: a critical discourse analysis of media explanations for Boko Haram’s improved video propaganda quality

The Nigeria-based violent non-state actor Boko Haram is increasingly reported on in the news media in relation to the Islamic State, another, more prominent, violent non-state actor. In particular, these comparisons have been drawn within the context of reports on Boko Haram’s recent improvement in video propaganda quality. While the associations with the Islamic State are often warranted, there are broader social consequences when colonial power relations are brought into play. Borrowing an approach from critical discourse analysis, 16 online English-language news articles were read through a postcolonial lens in order to analyse the structural relations of dominance that arise when discussing African non-state actors. The analysis revealed that among the corpus of articles, nine developed a discourse of mimicry, which serves to deny Boko Haram full agency, relegate them to a silenced subaltern status, and ultimately to diminish the sense of threat posed to the dominant geopolitical security paradigm.