“I WANT MY MOMMIES”: THE CRY FOR MINI‐DOMAS TO RECOGNIZE THE BEST INTERESTS OF THE CHILDREN OF SAME‐SEX COUPLES*

In child custody cases, courts will look to the best interests of a child to maintain visitation/custody rights only with the child's biological parent, not third parties. However, with a same‐sex couple, it is inevitable that one parent will not be the biological parent. Thus, when that parent is in a mini‐DOMA state, where same‐sex couples from non‐mini‐DOMA states do not have to be recognized, that parent will be viewed as a third party and lose all visitation/custody rights if the couple separates. This note advocates that mini‐DOMAs allow both the biological and nonbiological parents of a same‐sex couple to have visitation/custody rights of their children if it would be in the best interest of the children to do so.     

关于婚外恋的法律思考

通过对婚外恋现象进行法律层面的讨论,指出我国《婚姻法》应当完善配偶权内容,确立精神损害赔偿制度,并且应紧密联系实际,对婚外恋引发的其它一系列问题于法律上加以规范和解决。     

Adopting (in)equality in the UK: the Equality Act 2010 and its impact on charities

This article considers the relationship between the Equality Act 2010 and the Charities Act 2011 (in Scotland, the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005) in the context of adoption by same-sex couples and the complex exceptions to the Equality Act that charities may be able to rely upon in order to continue to discriminate. It concludes that the law is confusing to the point of opacity, to the detriment of those seeking to exercise their rights and those called on to adjudicate conflicts.     

我国证券内幕交易行为之法律规制问题研究

证券内幕交易行为违反了民法上的平等原则和诚信原则,对正常的证券交易秩序造成了极大危害。应当从证券内幕交易行为的特点入手对其危害性进行分析,并在此基础上建立相应的法律制度,以加强对证券交易市场的监管,遏制证券内幕交易行为的发生。     

马来西亚玻璃口新村外国新娘探析

随着马来西亚与中国、东盟国家之间关系日益紧密,马来西亚华人发生跨国婚姻的现象日益常见。玻璃口新村是马来西亚最大的广西籍华人新村。从第一批外国新娘——印尼华人嫁入新村开始至今已有20余年,第二批是泰国新娘,第三批是越南和中国新娘。作为跨国移民而来的外国新娘,在融入当地社会的过程中呈现出不同的特点:印尼新娘嫁入时间最早,较易获取公民身份证;泰国新娘保持原乡文化最浓;中国新娘多假结婚;越南新娘勤劳,婚后生活较为困难。玻璃口新村跨国婚姻是马来西亚华人跨国婚姻的缩影。     

The recent marital transition in Bulgaria between historical diversity and Pan-European integration

This paper deals with the development of family dynamics in Bulgaria with particular emphasis on the transformation in individual marital behaviour observed since the early 1990s. First, a brief overview of the development of nuptiality over the last century is provided, which establishes the stability of important features associated with the eastern European marriage pattern. The recent marital changes in the country are then discussed in the context of an evolving Second Demographic Transition, which challenges the last remnants of the eastern European marriage pattern and proceeds as an integrative trend toward the plurality of family forms observed within and between European countries. Special attention is directed towards the urban–rural differences in the development of the recent marital transition in Bulgaria. These differences are analysed from the perspective of the subjective preconditions associated with the change or stability of particular values and world-views related to marital life. The analysis shows that in Bulgaria during the 1990s it was the big cities that tended to be innovative centres, disseminating the new familistic values and behavioural patterns that facilitated the development of new marital trends. Conversely, the towns and villages tended to be places in which traditional values were stronger and prevailed for longer. These values, along with some structural factors, maintained the more traditional marital profile of the rural areas for longer.     

Marriage relationships among households in the mid 19th century Tama,Japan

This paper studies the formation of marriage relationships between households in 19th century, Tama, Japan. Previous studies on marriage market or partner selection in the Japanese past tended to rely either on information from a single village in case of statistical analysis, or on collection of oral histories. By using the information from a household register that covers 35 villages, and applying a method of social network analysis, this paper goes beyond the limitation of previous studies. Our empirical results show that there was a tendency for socioeconomic homogamy and endogamy (within kinship and within village) among peasants in the mid 19th century Tama, Japan.     

Family relationships in comic postcards 1900–1930

This paper discusses how comic postcards circulating in Europe and North America between 1900 and 1930 featured various aspects of family life. A range of situations were considered amusing involving babies, children, parents, mothers-in-law, servants and the elderly. The four situations that were pictured most frequently were flirtations, fertility, the struggle between husband and wife for dominance in the household, and courtship. The presence of widely shared attitudes to family life within the western world is suggested by the fact that the same sort of humour featured in cards sent and received in different European countries and in North America. On the other hand, the text on the back of the cards indicates that some writers had ignored or misunderstood the humour represented on the front of the card, whereas others had chosen their cards with care.     

Opportunity,responsibility and the market: interrogating liberal equality

This article scrutinizes the claim that liberal egalitarians are now the last real torchbearers for the principles of egalitarian reform. This claim might appear eccentric on the surface, but is increasingly common in leftist circles following the recent abandonment of such principles by formerly socialist parties. Programmes of 'social inclusion', for instance, are now widely criticized for substituting a desire to tackle economic inequalities with an incitement for us to become obedient, productive citizens. Focusing here on the claim that liberal egalitarians pose a radical alternative to this kind of discourse, I show that the real deficiencies of much liberal egalitarianism not only resemble but in many ways actually provide the sort of discourse within which parties like New Labour operate.     

Critical Theory,Democratic Justice and Globalisation

Abstract

One way of providing a focus for critical theory today is to articulate those substantive and robust norms of egalitarian justice that would appear to be presupposed by the idea of a republican and democratic constitutional order. It is suggested here that democratic justice requires the equalisation of effective communicative freedom among all structurally constituted social groups (SCSGs) and that this will have far-reaching implications that entail the deconstruction of all social hierarchies in both domestic and global orders. This argument is presented in three sections. The first defends the focus on groups rather than individuals in theorising democratic justice. The second intervenes critically in contemporary debates surrounding the theoretical relation between various aspects of justice including the demands of redistribution, recognition and political empowerment. The third turns to the challenges for critical theory presented by a complex and multifaceted process of globalisation and it defends a qualified form of cosmopolitanism and high lights the need for a radical democratisation of the international order.