We were conscious of the sort of people we mixed with

In the Republic of Ireland, the family is both a private entity and a construct of the state, and the relationship between family and state is outlined in the Irish constitution. In the Northern Irish state a similar conviction that the family unit is essential to the welfare of society has been implicit in social policy and legislation, as has the classification of women's place. Access to financial resources has played a significant role in situating the family in society and income and social class were inextricably interwoven.

This paper explores how social attitudes have shaped family behaviour and identity in mid twentieth century Ireland, particularly in terms of the part played by women. Class consciousness and definitions of “respectability” are considered, using oral history testimony from a number of women remembering when they were young in the 1930s and 40s. The interviewees accepted the domestic role assigned to them by popular consensus and social policy. Their stories contain frequent references to their reluctance to associate with people whose occupations were judged to be inferior because of the lower status accorded to certain kinds of work. The paper will consider the extent to which legislators and policy makers shared such class awareness and how that might have influenced the shaping of the family unit in Ireland in the middle decades of the twentieth century.     

Explaining the Vientiane Action Programme: ASEAN and the institutionalisation of human rights

Abstract

Existing explanations for the emergence of human rights on the political agenda in ASEAN focus either on the role of external pressure on ASEAN member states to ‘do something’, or on the way those states copied the form, but not the function, of other regional organisations such as the EU. Both approaches tacitly acknowledge that given the strong preference for intergovernmental governance displayed by ASEAN, regardless of interpretations, that it was states that drove the institutionalisation of rights forwards. Through examining in detail the causes and consequences of the Vientiane Action Programme this article disagrees with that assertion. At crucial moments before and after 2004 it was the Working Group for the Establishment of an ASEAN Human Rights Mechanism, a track III actor, which both inserted human rights into ASEAN discussions and forged the link between protecting those rights and the continuing success of ASEAN's security goals. Through understanding the role of the Working Group as a norm entrepreneur, assisting in the localisation of human rights standards, this article suggests that existing explanations of ASEAN institutionalisation need to be revised to include a wider range of political dynamics than previously were acknowledged.     

Singapore's National Day Rally speech: A site of ideological negotiation

This article analyses the inaugural National Day Rally speeches of three Singapore prime ministers. It locates these speeches in the continuous ideological work that the People's Action Party (PAP) government has to do in order to maintain consensus and forge new alliances among classes and social forces that are being transformed by globalisation. Increasingly, these speeches have had to deal with the contradictions between nation-building and the tensions between the liberal and reactionary tendencies of the global city. It is argued that such a situation has made it futile for the government to attempt a straightforward ideological mobilisation of the people into a relatively homogeneous national community. The PAP government's ideological struggle to forge consensus has been balanced by a strategy of divide-and-rule. Ironically, the rally speeches have been as much about dividing as they have been about uniting.     

群体性纠纷解决机制的建构原理

群体性纠纷带来问题的根源在于它与两造诉讼结构的紧张关系,但是,不同类型的群体性纠纷带来的挑战并不完全相同,对纠纷解决机制的要求也不尽相同。通过对西方国家代表性的群体性纠纷解决机制进行结构的、功能的和技术的比较,可以发现,行政机关执法、社会团体与行政机关提起的不作为之诉、撇去不法收益之诉、加入制群体诉讼、退出制群体诉讼分别适合特定类型的群体性纠纷;群体性诉讼中的费用风险问题,则可以通过诉讼费用制度、律师收费制度的调整或者第三方资助的途径解决。     

集团诉讼在德国:“异类”抑或“蓝本”?

德国学者关于美国集团诉讼的研究始于1970年代初期。这类研究在1970—1980年代主要集中在消费者保护领域,在1990年代,则主要集中在大规模侵害领域。进入21世纪,德国法学家提出了一系列系统改革德国群体性诉讼制度的立法建议,其中的某些内容已经被最新立法所采纳。可以肯定的是,虽然德国法学界一直拒绝在德国引入集团诉讼,但德国群体诉讼制度的发展其实已经受到了集团诉讼的影响。对于德国法学家来说,集团诉讼是异类,也是蓝本。     

论专利无效诉讼中的“循环诉讼”问题

我国专利无效诉讼领域长期存在"循环诉讼"的问题。针对这一问题,目前主要有民事诉讼途径、行政附带民事诉讼途径和当事人诉讼途径等几种解决方案。在中国现实法治语境下,当事人诉讼途径与前两种解决途径相比,成本低、效益高,更具有现实性和可操作性,是解决专利无效诉讼中"循环诉讼"问题的最佳途径。     

Paradoxical class: paradox of interest and political conservatism in middle class

ABSTRACT

Considering the importance of class analysis in understanding social issues, the present paper has used this level of analysis as an important factor in the economic, social and political attitude of society. Accordingly, three main classes, including the upper class, the middle class, and the lower class have been divided and their attitudes towards redistribution of wealth (as a non-conservative policy) have been evaluated. Given the current economic inequality, in the case of adopting the policy of redistribution of the wealth, the lower and middle classes will benefit economically, since they possess less wealth than their population percentage. Nevertheless, the results of the survey revealed that only the lower class assented to redistribution of the wealth, while upper and middle classes largely dissented to it. The study seeks to address this question that why the middle-class dissents to redistribution of wealth, despite its economic benefits. In order to answer that, we resort to another survey of the members of the middle class, in which the role of non-economic interests – including social and political interests, has been evaluated. Finally, the conclusion suggests that the majority of the middle class faces a paradoxical status in the area of economic, political, and social interests.     

妨害传染病防治罪的几个构成要件问题

妨害传染病防治罪的客体应当表述为"国家对传染病防治的管理制度";其客观要件"引起甲类传染病传播或者有传播严重危险"包括实害犯与危险犯两种形态;其主观要件应为过失,故意则不能构成。     

Correlates of Joining a Sexual Harassment Class Action

Researchers have proposed a variety of factors that influence the decision to seek legal relief in response to sexual harassment, but have generally failed to test these proposals empirically. The present study aims to address this gap by investigating the decision to join a class-action lawsuit. Participants were female professionals at a nationally based financial services firm, who either participated in or opted out of a sexual harassment class-action proceeding against the company. Five variables emerged as significant correlates of joining the class: organizational climate, turnover, financial dependence, PTSD, and primary appraisal. Dominance analysis identified contextual factors as the most important correlate. Theoretical and practical implications for the role of these factors in joining a class action are discussed.

The Functions of Class at the Present Time: Including Taste,or Sex and Class as Culture

Gagnier provides an analytic account of current uses of gender, sex and sexuality, and of class as objective condition, role, identity, subjectivity, performance, product of cultural formation, pain and pleasure. She concludes that we shall do better today to take from the history of political economy a focus on the division of labour, the kinds of work people do, including women's unpaid labour at home, and the ways that work structures identity and subjectivity, than on more abstract class identity (e.g. wage-labourers and capitalists), and to see that both local and global divisions of labour or work patterns are along race and gender lines as much as along class lines. The introduction of consumption models of taste and status draws together both class and gender, for consumption and leisure, the realm for most wage-labourers of pleasure, is as significant in the formation of identity and subjectivity as work, production or pain. We should account for people's pleasures and desires as well as their pain and place in narrowly conceived 'productive' relations. Class is no less significant than it always was, but future work should disaggregate the concept along these lines, mindful of gender salience in the division of labour and the reproduction of class. And it should include critical analysis of the realms of taste, pleasure, consumption, leisure and status.