Medical regulation of cognitive enhancement devices: some concerns

The authors present a cogent and detailed case for altering the Medical Devices Directive to allow regulation of cognitive enhancement devices (CEDs). Protection against significant risk of harm, especially for the vulnerable, and promotion of benefit through informed use of CEDs are all good features of the proposal. However, the pre-market approval process has limitations, which we explore. We raise the possibility of ‘risk compensation’ in response to the introduction of safety measures, which could alter its effectiveness. The proposal alludes to use of ‘formally trained practitioners,’ which provide a further tier of regulation for CEDs within the proposal. We consider some positive and negative implications of this aspect of the proposal that might warrant further consideration.     

3D打印治安管理对策研究

3D打印技术如今已受到了社会各界广泛的关注,有着良好的发展前景。然而其本身也具有着一定的治安隐患,如危险物品泛滥、特殊物品复制等。对于3D打印技术,需要进行系统的风险评估,并通过完善机制的构建进行人为控制,以保证其健康发展。这一机制的构建,除了应运用较多的高科技手段外,也应当在管理规范层面做到有序、协调。     

‘Sometimes fear gets in all your bones’: towards understanding the complexities of risk in development work

ABSTRACT

In the context of increasing risk for aid workers, a growing body of scholarship is focused on risk management in contexts of humanitarian assistance and development work. Much less attention, however, has been given to how staff and volunteers experience such risks. This paper adopts a feminist geographical approach to explore how development workers make meaning of risk in specific contexts. Adopting a qualitative approach, it draws upon 14 semi-structured in-depth interviews with international (7) and local (7) staff of an international educational and sporting non-governmental organisation (NGO) in Afghanistan. After exploring differences between local and foreign staff perceptions of risk, it also offers a gendered analysis of risk for women development workers in Afghanistan. In so doing, this paper contributes to the growing body of literature in ‘Aidland’ studies by revealing the complex understandings of risk and fear by both foreign and local staff in the same geographical and organisational context. For NGOs seeking to make life-saving decisions based on the calculation of risk, this paper evidences the need to also create space for the voices of local and foreign staff whose experiences of risk will be highly relational, embodied, gendered and context specific.     

Beyond poverty fixation: interrogating the experiences of internally displaced persons in Nigeria

Abstract

This paper draws on fieldwork at three camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Northeast Nigeria. It interrogates the pre-displacement experiences of participants, their transition to and experiences of internal displacement, vignettes of life at IDP camps, their relationship with host communities, the non-universality of experiences of sexual and gender-based violence among female IDPs (despite the particularities of experiences of women and young girls) and the resilience and agency of IDPs. The paper argues that scholarly engagement with IDPs and their social conditions should go beyond fixation on or fetishisation of poverty. Overall, the paper contributes to the empirical literature on conditions of internal displacement in sub-Saharan Africa.     

A closer look at risk factors for public-private partnerships in Singapore: six case studies

ABSTRACT

Despite its global popularity over the past few decades, the public-private partnership (PPP) has not always led to successful outcomes, due largely to a number of risk factors associated with the projects. To explain how and why PPPs sometimes fail, this study considers the success-failure continuum of Singapore’s recent PPP experience from 2000 to 2019. After taking a critical, close look at the six failed cases, we identify the following latent risk factors: unstable financial capacity during the execution period of a project, force majeure unforeseen problems that arise, a lack of technical and/or financial foresight, poor corporate management (e.g. delays in construction and poor-quality service delivery), and an unfavourable investment environment stemming from the lack of a clear and supportive governance framework. In addition, we find that most risk factors tend to appear during the contract management (pre-operation) and project management (operation) phases. Such risks seem to drive the operational failure and subsequent contract termination of multiple unsuccessful PPPs, simultaneously (and sometimes sequentially) rather than in isolated fashion. All in all, this study offers for policymakers that better risk allocation and proper, mutual coordination between the public and private partners represent essential factors for PPP success.     

Recreating the Third World Project: possibilities through the Fourth World

Abstract

In this paper, we make a theoretical argument that the Third World be returned to its political origins to inspire an updated Third World Project (TWP), revived as a global movement for progressive, anti-imperialist forces, through the Fourth World movement, which highlights internal colonialism. Both the TWP and the United Nations recognise only nation states as full members. We examine how a Third World strategy that brings in the Fourth World, or indigenous, minority and/or stateless groups, can help oppressed groups gain more autonomy and rights through a transnational solidarity rooted in empathy. We trace the intellectual roots and history of the TWP and consider obstacles in bringing together the TWP and the Fourth World movement. A Fourth World strategy corrects the TWP’s implicit approval of an underlying imperialism, and the TWP provides the Fourth World movement a model to accomplish its goal of resisting uncritical modernity.     

刑法现代化理论的续造

根据党的十九届四中全会决议,在国家治理体系和治理能力现代化的背景下,刑法现代化需要继续发展。反观我国刑法学领域,现代化刑法的追求还占据着当代刑法学人的思维,遮蔽了中国刑法现代化之未来图景的真实面貌,妨碍了中国刑法现代化的进一步发展。为此,我们有必要从现代性的一般特征出发,尝试着以现代之后的视角看待刑法现代化发展及其遭遇的“陷阱”。在对现代性中的基础主义、表象主义,以及普遍主义的批判基础上,实现现代刑法经由自由刑法向风险刑法、单一法典化向立法多样化和实践理性向交往理性三个维度的转化,并为中国刑法的现代化事业提供更为充足的理论动力。     

我国个人信息匿名化的法律标准与规则重塑

大数据时代,匿名化规范既是个人信息保护中风险预防的手段,也是我国数据经济发展中数字流通的法律基础,但匿名化的法律标准在我国法律中还有待明确。欧盟已通过《一般数据保护条例》提出明确的匿名化标准,但该条例基于流程设置的标准适用于欧盟境内尚可,适用于我国或显得过于严苛,有碍数字经济的发展。我国个人信息匿名化法律标准与规则的重塑应当考虑环境、再识别风险,建议进行功能性匿名化。将比例原则应用到我国匿名化法律标准和规则的重塑之中,并将其引入到评估匿名信息接收者的风险等级,有助于降低个人信息被再识别的风险亦有利于匿名化的法律标准制定和规则构建。     

试论企业内部控制体系在党风廉政建设中的作用

反对腐败、建设廉洁政治,是党一贯坚持的鲜明政治立场。这个问题解决不好,就会对党造成致命伤害。目前,腐败涉及的数字触目惊心,坚决惩治、有效预防腐败和加强党风廉政建设,是党必须始终抓好的重大政治任务。内部控制体系建立的目的就是为了保证经济资源的安全完整、经济信息的正确可靠、经营行为的合理合法、经济活动的有序进行,以及经营风险的有效规避,使其在党风廉政建设中发挥积极作用。     

生物多样性预防公益诉讼的制度逻辑及实现路径

随着当今社会风险的不断加剧、不可逆转损害后果的频繁出现,生物多样性保护不应局限于事后的补救性救济,而应当积极拓展其预防功能,将隐患消弭于尚未发生之际是生物多样性预防公益诉讼的应有之义。就现行司法救济体系而言,尚存在法源理论上的不相妥协、立法维度上的事后救济为主、司法实践中的固守谨慎等鲜明特征。因此,应当在风险预防原则与比例原则的引导下,加快推进生物多样性专门立法、明确“重大风险”判断基准、完善生物多样性多元保障体系、打造查、审、执相互贯通的全链条式体系。