Future Uncertainty as a Challenge to Law's Programmes: The Dilemma of Parental Disputes

The article poses the problem of the need for judges to make 'right' decisions. It then describes how judges have attempted to meet this requirement in difficult cases concerning parental disputes over contact with children where there have been allegations of domestic violence. Applying Luhmann's concepts of the legal system, law's function, law's coding and law's programmes (Das Recht der Gesellschaft (Society's Law) 1997), offers a very different perspective on the issue to that of the judiciary or legal commentators who tend to see the issue of the law, determining, with expert help, what is best for the child. Law's function of stabilizing expectations over time obliges it to deal with all matters that come before the courts through the application of 'conditional programmes' and prevents it from applying the 'purpose oriented programmes' of politics and those who see the issue in terms of ideological conflict.     

零工经济崛起与零工劳动者权益保护 ——来自美国《加州零工经济法》的启示

与传统的全职工作相比,零工工作具有灵活性强、限制少、效率高等特点,因而零工经济对于劳动者、企业、政府都具有积极意义。但是目前迫切需要解决的是零工劳动者的身份界定问题,这关系到其合法权益的保障。2020年1月1日生效的美国《加州零工经济法》将过去用来区分零工劳动者究竟是雇员还是独立承揽人的Borello检验标准改为ABC检验标准。新标准的实施有利于认定零工劳动者为雇员,从而有效地保护了劳动者权益,对我国未来给予零工劳动者明确的法律保障具有较强的借鉴价值。     

网络帮助行为刑法不法归责模式——以功能主义为视角

网络空间中的帮助行为实质不法具有行为对象上的不特定性、行为方式上的非外在可辨别性和侵害结果上的非实体性,网络帮助行为的不法归责模式因此具有独立化的必要。在功能主义的视角下,针对实质不法的特点,网络帮助行为不法归责模式凸显主观不法要素对不法归责范围的厘定效果和客观归责上的功能维护与管道治理的目标。网络帮助行为的不法归责不同于传统的犯罪参与归责模式,刑法对此类行为的规制较共犯归责原则宽松,但也应当对其进行合宪性解释,归责边界应当遵循社会宪治的理念,以社会功能分化的视角构建网络时代公民基本权利保护的刑法解释框架。     

The House of Lords: The Working of the Electoral Process in the 1999 Act of Parliament

This article investigates the working of the 1999 Act of Parliament in relation to the electoral process. One of the more controversial measures in the 1999 Act was the preservation of the representation of the hereditary element in the House of Lords. In the 2007-2008 session of Parliament, Lord Avebury introduced the House of Lords (Amendment) Bill, to repeal this electoral process, and Lord (David) Steel of Aikwood introduced the House of Lords Bill, which had provisions to the same effect as Lord Avebury's Bill. The working of this electoral process is therefore likely to be a topic of debate in the 2008-2009 session of the House of Lords. We suggest that there are three possible options to deal with the likely future issues for this electoral process. These we present as a contribution to a wider debate on the way forward for this constitutional issue.     

‘Solidity or Wind?’ What's on the Menu in the Bill of Rights Debate?

This article examines the pronouncements and positions of the leading political parties on the Human Rights Act and the proposals for a new British Bill of Rights and Responsibilities. It analyses the main arguments made in support of a British Bill of Rights and Responsibilities, which are advanced around five main issues: security, the judges, parliamentary sovereignty, responsibilities and 'British rights'. The article was written before the government published the Green Paper Rights and Responsibilities: developing our constitutional framework in March 2009 and provides a political context with which to analyse it.     

Citizenship and the Constitution

The status of “British subjects”, the relationship between the individual and the State, and the concept of “rights” and “liberties” are relevant to the current political debate about “British identity”, citizenship, “multiculturalism”, a “British Bill of Rights”, and whether there is now a need for a written constitution. This article describes the confused contemporary understanding of what is meant by “British” citizenship and analyses the parallel developments of citizenship and our constitutional arrangements. The Human Rights Act, devolution and Gordon Brown's proposed constitutional renewal are important steps in setting out the ideas and principles that bind us together as a nation. Together with a coherent definition of the rights and obligations of British citizenship, constitutional reform would achieve a stronger sense of what it means to be British today.     

Points of departure: re-examining the discursive formation of the Hate Crime Statistics Act of 1990

Leung’s article re-examines the political and legislative history of the debates that led up to the passage of the 1990 Hate Crime Statistics Act, in particular the 1980 House committee hearing on Increasing Violence against Minorities and a 1983 U.S. Commission on Civil Rights report entitled Intimidation and Violence: Racial and Religious Bigotry in America. Both identify organized white supremacy as the cause of the nation’s epidemic of racial intimidation and violent bigotry in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Many significant recommendations were made, but data collection became the first piece of legislation to address the national problem of hate violence. Leung seeks to explain why. By analysing the relationship between committee hearings, the key report and the political context of the Reagan administration, he demonstrates how ‘hate crime’ became an object of knowledge, and how its definition had implications for policy development.     

The Impact of the Threat of Terrorism on U.S. District Court Decisions During Wartime

Federal courts are key actors in the U.S. government’s fight against terrorism because they adjudicate cases based on the USA PATRIOT Act, and accordingly make national security policy. We examine the extent that the terror threat influences judicial decisions in a dataset of 111 USA PATRIOT Act cases decided in the U.S. District Courts from 2001 through 2013, while controlling for other judicial decision-making variables. The results demonstrate that when a case involves a heightened terror threat, federal judges are more likely to defer to the government. Some key control variables are also significant.     

试析我国劳动合同法的劳动者维权功能

我国劳动合同法具有明显的维护劳动者合法权益的功能,主要体现在立法目的、权利和义务分配、法律责任分配,以及监督检查等诸多方面,劳动合同法是我国广大劳动者维权的重要依据和有力武器。     

公平:在倾斜中实现平衡——《劳动合同法》应当向劳动者倾斜

向劳动者倾斜不仅是《劳动合同法》的立法需要,也是追求法律公正与公平的现实需要。《劳动合同法》向劳动者倾斜的力度是适度的,并不存在倾斜过度问题。《劳动合同法》只有向劳动者倾斜,侧重保护处于弱势劳动者的合法权益,在倾斜中调整和平衡雇佣双方的关系,才能建立起平衡、和谐的劳动关系。