How the CT Community Failed to Anticipate the Islamic State

This article is a critique of the dominant approach within the counter-terrorism (CT) community that failed to analyze IS’s trajectory as a distinct group since at least 2006. We argue that two factors account for this failure. The first concerns the Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF), the law that was enacted in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, providing options to the U.S. President to authorize the use of Armed Forces “against those responsible” for the 9/11 attacks. We contend that this law served as an incentive to lump regional jihadi groups under the AQ umbrella instead of discerning their differences. The second factor concerns what we term as the “al-Qa‘ida fixation,” it has to do with a post-9/11 bias towards understanding the threat emanating from jihadi groups around the world through the lens of AQ. This translated into falsely constructing a so-called “al-Qaeda Central” in the business of ‘franchising’ its brand and cloning its violent operations by establishing regional jihadi groups that served as its “affiliates” and carried out its orders. In the post-9/11 era, these two factors fed off each other. Our critique is not meant to suggest that the CT community is expected to predict the unpredictable, and we also recognize that one gains greater clarity with the benefit of hindsight. However, we argue that had the CT community given due attention to the differences between jihadi groups, there was ample evidence in the open source realm that was pointing to IS being AQ’s bête noire, and was seeking to outbid it.     

刍议少数民族地区事实婚姻的法律效力

在少数民族自治地区应根据实际情况分别承认事实婚姻的法律效力 ,才能更好地维护少数民族地区的婚姻家庭秩序 ,保护事实婚姻当事人的合法权益。     

Measuring and explaining the marriage boom in the developed world

Using aggregated data from 25 developed countries over a lengthy period of time, this article presents a measure of the marriage boom observed in the twentieth century and an explanation for its causes. One of my main conclusions is that even though it basically developed after the Second World War, its origins are to be found before it. I found that, contrary to the views of some scholars, this boom was not a short-lived phenomenon, but actually lasted for 90 years on average. Using panel data analysis techniques, I am able to show that the rise in women’s education, state spending on social benefits, and larger percentages of people employed in the primary sector tended to discourage marriage. I also found a quadratic relationship between the nuptiality index and the per capita income and mortality rates.     

离婚损害赔偿制度和离婚补偿制度比较研究

由于我国《婚姻法》中对离婚后法律救济制度中的一些条款在具体实施时难以操作,导致了我国离婚救济制度的不完善,离婚后弱者的合法权益得不到保障。而将离婚损害赔偿制度和离婚补偿制度同时建立于我国《婚姻法》中,则可以完善离婚救济制度,减少因离婚带来的“女性贫困化”现象,以保证社会弱者权益,构建幸福家庭、和谐社会。     

The polyamorous threat to nonmarriage

Some progressive U.S. Cities and several Canadian provinces now provide mechanisms for polyamorous families to register as such with state authorities. More than a million people in the United States identify as polyamorous and many more practice some form of ethical nonmonogamy. This article suggests that the growing recognition of polyamory poses a substantial threat to a simultaneous development in family law: the call by scholars and the Uniform Law Commission for courts to enforce a more implied contract, implied partnership and equitable claims in the context of non-marital conjugal cohabitation. Non-marital cohabitants argue that courts can infer marital-type commitments to share property from the fact of conjugal cohabitation. They argue that their nonmarriage should entitle them to the kinds of relief afforded to divorcing couples. But polyamorous conjugal cohabitation involves very different norms and commitments to reliance, partnership and transparency than does traditional marriage. Marital-type relief maps awkwardly, if at all, onto the reality of most polyamorous relationships. By bringing into relief that which we cannot necessarily assume about conjugal cohabitation, the recognition of polyamory questions what many proponents of more legal protection of nonmarital couples ask courts to assume about conjugal cohabitation, namely that it gives rise to reasonable reliance on a status quo and an intent to share property. Moreover, by providing a means for polyamorous households to register their relationships, polyamorous registration normalizes the idea of non-marital relationship registration. The more normal and expected it is for people who want rights as some form of family to register their familial intent with the state, the harder it is for those who have not so registered to argue that the state must treat them as some sort of family.     

Bankruptcy in divorce: The litigation tactic of the angry spouse

A matrimonial proceeding on its own is complex and can have far-reaching implications. Add in a spouse filing for bankruptcy in the midst of the proceeding, and the process becomes even further complicated and quite possibly hostile. This Note analyzes the bad-faith tactics of debtor spouses filing for bankruptcy in the middle of a divorce proceeding and proposes an amendment to the Bankruptcy Code that permits bankruptcy courts to dismiss bad faith petitions before they negatively impact divorce proceedings.