Guiding the Public Sector: Assessing the Use of Recommended Practices in the Budgeting Process

Public administration is a field defined by principles, best practices, and recommended guidelines. According to advocates, these guidelines have the potential to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of public organizations. However, this potential is predicated on the degree to which they are actually followed in practice. Using an original survey of local budgeting officials across the United States, this study examines the correlation between current budgeting practices and established, recommended practices. While a significant number of current practices closely match those that have been recommended, notable variations were present. The trends and their implications conclude the assessment.     

日美防卫合作指针评析

新指针是日美实质性修改 6 0年安保体制的标志。新指针由于将我国台湾地区纳入其“周边地区”范围 ,违反了国际法和《中日联合声明》及《中日和平友好条约》,干涉我国内政 ,因而是非法的 ,也应是无效的。新指针的出台为日美利用台湾问题干涉我国内政提供了“法律依据”;助长了“台独”分子的嚣张气焰 ;加大我解决台湾问题的难度。但中日美三国并不会因为台湾问题而爆发全面战争 ,为此我们应在坚持原则性的基础上要有适当的灵活性。     

Prisons,Proportionality and Recent Penal History

A leading aim of the Criminal Justice Act 1991 was to install the principle of proportionality as the primary rationale for sentencing and to bring about a reduction in the use of imprisonment.  In the decade that followed the prison population in England and Wales rose steeply.  This article examines the reasons for the rising use of prison, in order to assess whether proportionality (or ‘just deserts’) was tried and failed.  It argues that in practice the proportionality principle was overwhelmed by other influences, and that deterrence and incapacitation were the main drivers of the increasing use of imprisonment.  The article goes on to argue that proportionality theories have within them the resources to produce penal moderation, notably the ‘drowning out’ argument, the human rights argument, and decrementalism.  The article concludes by rejecting the claim that proportionality theories are likely in practice to result in escalating punishment.     

公司僵局司法强制解散程序初探

新《公司法》引入了公司僵局的司法强制解散制度,但因对程序适用未作规定,给司法实践操作带来困惑.在法律历史、法律理论和法律比较的背景下研究这一课题,探讨司法强制解散程序指导思想和原则,设置具体适用程序,为该项新制度的具体实用操作提供践之可行的方案.     

The ‘tenure guidelines’ as a tool for democratising land and resource control in Latin America

Abstract

The current configuration of global land politics – who gets what land, how, how much, why and with what implications in urban and rural spaces in the Global South and North – brings disparate social groups, governments and social movements with different sectoral and class interests into the issue of natural resource politics. Governance instruments must be able to capture the ‘political moment’ marked by the increasing intersection of issues and state and social forces that mobilise around these. This paper looks at whether and how the Voluntary Guidelines on Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security (also known as the TGs) passed in 2012 in the United Nations Committee for Food Security (CFS) can contribute to democratising resource politics today. This work puts forward some initial ideas about how systematic research into the TGs can be done more meaningfully.     

CONTEXTUAL DISPARITIES IN GUIDELINES DEPARTURES: COURTROOM SOCIAL CONTEXTS,GUIDELINES COMPLIANCE,AND EXTRALEGAL DISPARITIES IN CRIMINAL SENTENCING1

This study examines the theoretical and empirical linkages between criminal court social contexts and the judicial use of sentences that deviate from the recommendations of sentencing guidelines. Individual sentencing data from the Pennsylvania Commission on Sentencing (PCS) are combined with county‐level measures of social context to examine predictions about the role courtroom characteristics play in judicial departures. Results from hierarchical analyses suggest that the likelihood of departure varies significantly across courts, even after accounting for variations in individual case characteristics. Several measures of courtroom social context—including the size of the court, its caseload pressure and the overall guidelines compliance rate—are significantly related to the individual likelihood of receiving a departure sentence. Moreover, the social context of the court also conditions the influence of various individual‐level sentencing considerations. Findings are discussed in relation to contemporary theoretical perspectives on courtroom decision making and future directions for research on contextual disparities in criminal sentencing are suggested.     

DISCRETION AND DISPARITY UNDER SENTENCING GUIDELINES: THE ROLE OF DEPARTURES AND STRUCTURED SENTENCING ALTERNATIVES*

This article examines the use of alternative sentencing provisions as mechanisms for departing from sentencing guidelines in Washington State and as structural sources of unwarranted sentencing disparity. The authors argue that these structural features of guidelines not only serve as “windows of discretion” through which disparities arise, but they also may encourage disparities by requiring consideration of substantive criteria that disadvantage certain offender groups. The analyses find that males and minority offenders are less likely to receive alternative sentences below the standard range, but that race‐ethnicity and gender have inconsistent effects on departures above the standard range. Theoretical implications of the study are discussed.     

SENTENCING IN CONTEXT: A MULTILEVEL ANALYSIS

Criminal sentencing is, along with arresting and prosecuting, among the most important of formal social control decisions. In this study we use hierarchical modeling to test hypotheses about contextual level influences and cross level interaction effects on local court decisions. Most of the explanatory "action," our analysis shows, is at the individual case level in criminal sentencing. We also find evidence that local contextual features–such as court organizational culture, court caseload pressure, and racial and ethnic composition–affect sentencing outcomes, either directly or in interaction with individual factors. We conclude by discussing theoretical implications of our findings, and how our study points out some dilemmas among civil rights, local autonomy and organizational realities of criminal courts.     

日韩两国建立碳足迹标签制度的共同经验及启示

建立碳足迹标签制度是减少碳排放、规避低碳贸易壁垒、提升我国全球价值链分工地位以及履行大国责任的有效途径。日韩两国在建立碳足迹标签制度的过程中具有很多共同之处,如完善碳足迹认证体系、出台指导路线、设计恰当的碳足迹标签等。中国由于起步较晚,可以借鉴日韩两国的共同经验。此外,将进口产品纳入碳足迹标签认证体系以及订立中日韩低碳贸易协定将有利于减少全球碳排放并促进区域内贸易发展。