刑事案件中警察出庭作证可行性探析

警察出庭作证不仅涉及我国的政治体制、司法体制问题，还涉及政法工作者们对刑事证据规则的认识，只有把这几个原则性问题的关系理顺，才能为以后的警察出庭作证制度建设立好根本。当前有关警察出庭作证的研究为数不少是直接构建制度方面的，而对警察出庭作证尤其是刑事案件中警察出庭作证的理论基础、重大意义，以及可行性分析才是根本。此外，一些国家和地区警察出庭作证的先进经验对我国警察出庭作证的实践具有重大启示。     

陕甘宁边区高等法院档案及其学术价值

陕甘宁边区高等法院档案,内容完整、丰富,不仅包括边区整体司法运作的详细资料,还有大量有关法律制度的理论探讨资料,对这一批史料的整理、公开和研究,将会极大地丰富陕甘宁边区法制史的资料体系,深化边区法制史的研究,为今天的法制研究、法制改革及建设提供十分重要的经验和教训。     

公诉案件庭审中非法证据排除程序酌实践与思考

对于庭审中提出非法证据排除申请的,相关证据展示、交换和对证据收集合法性的证明。拟通过休庭方式在庭下进行,庭上再进行确认或裁定;对于当庭非法证据排除调查不至于造成庭审过分延误的,也可在庭审过程中进行。侦查人员作为“程序上的被告”出庭说明情况,虽不具备证人身份,但依然可以接受控辩双方的质询,从某种意义上说,是依法辅助公诉人履行控诉职责的职务行为。     

认真对待量刑--量刑程序化初探

实现定罪的准确与量刑的适当,是现代法治社会对整个刑事审判工作的两项基本要求.但在我国,无论是立法操作还是司法实践,抑或是学界探讨,量刑程序都是不受关注、极易忽视的领域,量刑非程序化现象极为严重.现行以定罪为中心的庭审结构是导致量刑非程序化的根本原因所在,构建"先定罪""后量刑"的二阶段庭审结构便可初步破解这一难题.在保证定罪程序准确、公正的同时,还须构建"阳光下的量刑"制度,以保证量刑程序的公正.     

谋求民生改善和社会改革的更大进展——“十二五”期间社会发展阶段性特征探析

＂十二五＂时期是全面建设小康社会的关键时期,是深化改革开放、加快转变经济发展方式的攻坚时期。此期间我国社会发展具有五个阶段性特征：社会结构的调整进入突破阶段;社会事业的发展将进入起飞阶段;社会矛盾的化解进入攻坚阶段;社会心理的调适进入自觉阶段;社会管理的运作进入创新阶段。这些阶段性特征是科学制定和实施＂十二五＂规划和社会政策,谋求民生改善和社会改革取得更大进展的现实条件。     

全球金融危机后国际贸易制度的完善与中国的对策

现有的国际贸易制度是建立在第二次世界大战后的政治和经济格局之上的,主要反映了英美对战后国际贸易政策的想法与安排。随着参与国家或地区的增多,这一体制需要作出适当的调整,全球金融危机进一步强化了这一必要性。在国际贸易规则的完善过程中中国应当发挥积极的作用。中国的贸易额和人均产值决定了中国的微妙处境。成为发达国家与发展中国家之间的桥梁,发挥双边和多边体系的作用,应是中国促进国际贸易秩序完善的基本原则与做法。     

Don't Mention the War: The Court of Appeal,the Criminal Cases Review Commission and Dealing with the Past in Northern Ireland

Despite the vast transitional justice scholarship relating to prisoner release, amnesties and prosecutions when conflicts end, there is a significant gap in practice and academic literature regarding wrongful convictions. Uniquely amongst post‐conflict societies, Northern Ireland has a body for investigating miscarriages of justice, albeit one designed for ‘ordinary’ appeals. In the absence of a formal truth‐recovery process, criminal appeals are becoming a proxy for addressing the role of the state during ‘The Troubles,’ as well as remedying individual injustices. This article examines the approach of the Northern Ireland Court of Appeal during the conflict. It charts the developments in its decision‐making following the cease‐fires and the establishment of the Criminal Cases Review Commission. It concludes that the current system is unsatisfactory as it ignores the effects of the conflict on the appeal process and offers no insights into the role of the Court during the conflict. Alternative models are suggested.     

Distrust as a hindrance to democratic governance in South Korea

This article focuses on the concept of trust and its implications for democratic governance in South Korea. Trust is an elusive concept that is often discussed using such synonyms as confidence, trustworthy, reliance, or anticipation of goodwill. Trust in interpersonal relations is different from trust in institutions. The case of South Korean politics and administration shows that the absence of trust hampers the process of building a mature democratic society and hinders the development of democratic governance. The article concludes by stressing the need to enhance trust in society, government, policy‐makers, and public administrators.     

The Supreme Court and Issue Attention: The Case of Homosexuality

Previous studies have shown that a small number of Supreme Court decisions that “rearrange[d] the … distribution of political benefits” have drawn the media's attention to the underlying issues involved in those cases. This article provides an additional test of that empirical claim, examining the effects of the Supreme Court's gay rights cases on media coverage of homosexuality from 1990 to 2005. The data indicate that Supreme Court decisions that expanded the scope of gay rights increased coverage of homosexuality in both The New York Times and USA Today, while cases that affirmed the existing scope of gay rights had no such effect.     

Media Coverage of the U.S. Supreme Court: How Do Journalists Assess the Importance of Court Decisions?

Agenda-setting theory is central to understanding the connection between media and American government. Indeed, legislative and executive branches of American government are often characterized by their publicity-seeking behavior. This is not true of the judicial branch. However, the importance of media coverage is magnified for the United States Supreme Court because, lacking the public affairs mechanisms of the other two branches, the Court is dependent on media dissemination of information about its decisions. Despite this important role, little is known about what attracts media to cover Supreme Court cases. We ask what case characteristics attract media attention. We examine the effect of case variables on general media coverage of Court decisions (a concept we call “newsworthiness,” measured by whether mention of a given case decision appears on the front page of the New York Times) and on inclusion of a case on a list of legally significant cases over time (a concept we call “legal salience,” measured by the appearance of a case in the Congressional Quarterly's Guide to the Supreme Court). Examining cases over a 54-year period, we identify characteristics of cases appearing in either the New York Times or the CQ Guide or both. We conclude media news values may not always lead to coverage of the most legally salient cases, but some overlap indicates several cues used to judge immediate newsworthiness of cases stand the retrospective evaluation of legal significance.

[Supplementary material is available for this article. Go to the publisher's online edition of Political Communication for the following free supplemental resources: issue area matrices and predicted probabilities of case characteristics.]