Online collaboration as a pedagogical approach to learning and teaching undergraduate legal education

Legal education is in a period of rapid development driven by changing industry demands and developing technologies. This paper will describe an innovative pilot study which utilises new technologies to provide an alternative mode of teaching and learning to meet growing industry demands for graduates who are technologically savvy and have strong communication and collaboration skills. The pilot study redesigns a law unit combining a more traditional approach with an approach in which online collaboration is critical to student learning as a teaching and assessment tool. After completing an online collaborative activity as part of their assessment for the unit, students completed an online survey to identify their perspectives of the online collaborative experience. The online survey data was analysed to identify common themes and the experiences of students are shared in this paper. The paper provides an example of how instructors might take advantage of a learning design process, online tools and infrastructure to develop educational experiences which promote communication and collaboration within the law discipline. It will also include five recommendations to consider when including online collaboration in unit design for law students.     

Rethinking the notion of hosting in the aftermath of Delfi: Shifting from liability to responsibility?

Liability of Internet intermediaries for a third-party content is a complex topic, especially with regards to the storage of illegal or harmful postings offered by portals. The E-Commerce Directive offered a liberal framework for handling such cases, provided that a hosting service provider has not played an active role in content management. Being passive turned out to be the key precondition for immunity under safe harbour provisions. Yet, after the Delfi ruling the legal landscape has changed radically. Although the judgment of the Strasbourg tribunal has been dismissed in some jurisdictions as an error or one-off case, the truth is that it took into account acquis communautaire and imposed liability on the news portal, which followed the guidelines of Google France and eBay rulings. Given the lack of predictability of the current legal framework, the aim of this contribution is to offer a deep-dive into the notion of hosting from a technical perspective in order to better understand why Articles 14–15 of the E-Commerce Directive may require a re-examination. It is also submitted that portals and other online service providers relying on a broad construction of safe harbours should be entitled to Good Samaritan protection akin to section 230 of the American Communications Decency Act in order not to hold them liable for being active in fighting hate speech and other forms of illegal and harmful conduct.     

Governance in the European Union: A Policy Analysis of the Attempts to Raise Legitimacy through Civil Society Participation

Abstract

The article focuses on two flagship initiatives – the open method of co-ordination and online consultations – in which the European Union aimed to improve democratic legitimacy through collaborative governance. Offering an analytical framework to scrutinize the large body of existing theoretical and empirical research, the article concludes that not only were the high expectations on the effects of applied governance disappointed, the results also hint at larger, more general implications for the governance concept that, in contrast to the high expectations, appears to be indeed strongly dependent on government-like conditions to operate successfully.     

Interpreting UKIP's ‘Earthquake’ in British Politics: UK Television News Coverage of the 2009 and 2014 EU Election Campaigns

UK broadcasters came under fire for the amount of airtime UKIP and its leader Nigel Farage received after the party won the most votes in the 2014 EU election. Our content analysis of television news during the 2009 and 2014 campaigns found little bias in terms of soundbites, but in the more recent election Farage visually appeared in coverage to a greater degree than other party leaders. Moreover, two core UKIP policies—being in or out of Europe and immigration—dominated coverage in 2014. We suggest the ‘UKIP factor’ and the media's fascination with Nigel Farage help explain why the 2014 campaign was more visible on television news than was the case in 2009 and was largely reported through a Westminster prism. Although television news bulletins attempt to impartially report elections, the 2014 campaign agenda was largely contested on UKIP's ideological terrain and the party's electoral fortunes.     

科学立法背景下思想政治教育内容的确立

党的十八届四中全会做出了全面推进依法治国进程的重大决定,坚持社会主义法治,建设社会主义法治国家需要将依法治国贯彻到社会的方方面面。科学立法是依法治国的前提,而思想政治教育在推进依法治国的进程中发挥着重要作用。立法的科学性标准主要包含合理性、合法性、合逻辑性等方面,新时期思想政治教育的内容确立也需要具备科学性前提。在科学立法背景下,思想政治教育内容的确立也需要符合合理性、合法性、合逻辑性的标准,才能更加彰显思想政治教育的科学性,提高思想政治教育的自信。     

中国特色社会主义道路的形成发展和科学内涵

党的十七大的一个重大理论贡献,就是对改革开放新时期形成的正确道路进行科学界定,深刻阐述了中国特色社会主义道路的科学内涵。这条道路,包括“一个中心、两个基本点”的基本路线,确定了巩固和发展社会主义制度的根本目的,涵盖了中国特色社会主义事业四位一体的总体布局,提出了我国发展的战略目标。在当代中国,坚持中国特色社会主义道路,就是真正坚持社会主义。学习贯彻党的十七大精神,在新的历史起点上坚持和发展中国特色社会主义道路,必须坚定不移地继续解放思想,坚持改革开放,推动科学发展,促进社会和谐,为夺取全面建设小康社会新胜利而奋斗。     

环境可持续发展原则探析

可持续发展原则是基于环境资源有限性与人类需要无限性、人类发展普遍性与区域发展不平衡性、经济发展高速性与环境质量渐恶性、和谐社会终极目标与不和谐社会现状等矛盾而产生的,有其存在的哲学和伦理基础.环境可持续发展原则要求实现代际公平、代内公平、资源可持续利用以及环境与经济社会发展协调,具体可以通过环境规划制度、循环生产制度、环境税收制度、清洁生产制度和生态补偿制度予以贯彻落实.     

高职民事诉讼法课程教学内容体系改革探索——以诉讼流程和项目实训为主线

课程建设与改革是提高教学质量的核心,也是教学改革的重点和难点。结合高职民事诉讼法课程教学的要求,依据高职法律专业人才培养的实践性、职业性和开放性的特点,以民事案件诉讼流程为主线构建理论教学内容,以民事诉讼主要环节和常见民事纠纷处理为项目构建实践教学的改革,使整个民事诉讼法的教学内容体系更加贴近职业教育的目的与要求。     

Theoretical criteria for online consumer behaviour: web-based communication exposure and internal psychological behavioural processes approaches

Various theories, theoretical viewpoints and models on consumer behaviour stipulate consumers’ offline and online behaviour when purchasing a product or using a service. This article deviates from the purchasing perspective and instead proposes an information and web-based communication message ‘seeking and consumption¹ perspective. This new perspective is theoretically grounded in two new approaches to online consumer behaviour: the web-based communication exposure and internal psychological behavioural processes approaches; as well as the integration of various theoretical perspectives, approaches, theories and models that address fragments of offline and online consumer behaviour. The research problem is to address the existing limited and fragmented approaches, because existing purchasing perspectives arguably do not provide adequate theoretical criteria to explain online consumer behaviour during interactive information-seeking and consumption activities. Hence, the main aim of this article is to propose new theoretical criteria for online consumer behaviour to address these shortcomings.