Gauging support for innovative farmland preservation techniques

Given growing concerns about the loss of farmland in the US, governmental and nonprofit groups are seeking innovative, cost-effective methods to preserve lands that will elicit additional landowner participation. This article describes four innovative farmland preservation techniques and derives implications for the policy process through interviews of key stakeholders: program administrators, lawmakers, and landowners. Experts on farmland preservation were also interviewed to ensure stakeholder perceptions substantively inform the policy process. Four techniques were selected for assessment from approximately 30 novel techniques. Reactions to these policy options reflect stakeholder perceptions of a baseline condition; the perceptions help evaluate which options are likely to survive the policy process and what attributes will lead to their acceptability because few of these techniques have yet become policy. Although the stakeholders may have more limited experience with the policy process, land preservation experts validated many of the results and the possibility of success in the “rough and tumble” of the policy process. Of the four investigated techniques rights of first refusal was the most favored, although respondents thought effective implementation would require careful targeting and a dedicated funding source. Experts agreed this technique was most likely to survive in the political arena. Agricultural conservation pension was also viewed favorably, though it was considered administratively difficult to implement. Several experts thought that, though inchoate, the pension plan could potentially be more cost effective than rights of first refusal. Land preservation tontines were perceived to be an interesting concept, but confusing, difficult to implement, and ill-defined. Term conservation easements were viewed unfavorably because they did not preserve land permanently.

权利的实现与“有限侵害性”的社会权力——从贫困治理出发的思考

如何实现、保障和发展公民所拥有的法律上的权利?对这一问题的研究不应该再继续局限于国家与市民社会两分法这样一种简单化的理论框架。因为在当前,这一理论框架只是驱使研究者关注国家权力如何从社会中退出,关注国家权力对社会自治的侵害,而忽视了对社会权力的有限侵害性特点的研究。社会权力的有限侵害性最鲜明地体现在公民社会基本权利的保障和实现中,也即对贫困的治理。     

业主权利保护法律问题探究

我国《物权法》的实施,使物业管理立法走上了规范化的道路,但由于业主权利保护的现行法律规定不完善,导致业主大会的运作、诉讼主体资格及业主委员会的法律地位等诸方面还存在缺陷。完善业主权利的法律保护应降低业主大会表决条件,以利业主自治权的实现,并明确业主的法律地位,赋予业主大会诉讼权利主体资格。     

Security,privacy and freedom and the EU legal and policy framework for biometrics

The adoption of the Treaty of Lisbon and the granting to the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the same legal force as the Treaty has lent a new impulse to the consideration of fundamental human rights by the European Union (EU). The question remains, however, as to how this legal discourse, centred upon human rights, is actually shaping the EU regulatory framework in specific policy domains. The aim of this paper is to critically appraise the ways that the fundamental rights of security, privacy and freedom guaranteed by the Charter are being construed in the context of EU law and policy on biometrics, an ethically and morally sensitive security technology whose development and use are being actively promoted by the EU. We conclude that the interpretation of the pertinent rights, as well as their balancing, owes a great deal to the goals of EU policies for research and development, and under the auspices of Freedom, Security and Justice, shaped largely by political and economic considerations. These considerations then tend to prevail over ethically or morally-based legal claims.     

Rights in Criminal Law in the Light of a Will Theory

The will theory of rights has so far been considered incapable of capturing individual rights under criminal law. Adherents of the will theory, therefore, have defended the claim that criminal law does not assign rights to individuals. In this article I argue first, that criminal law does assign individual rights and second, that the will theory of rights may enhance our understanding of these rights. The two major implications of the account are: a volenti non fit iniuria principle for criminal law, and a theoretical framework for an idea of punishment as restitution.     

论法院对基本权利的保护

为公民基本权利提供保护,是现代国家合法性的重要来源。普通法院在基本权利保护中发挥着重要作用。德国虽然设立了宪法法院,但保护公民基本权利的职责仍主要由其他法院承担。在没有设立宪法法院的国家,通过普通法院更是为基本权利提供司法保护的唯一途径。我国法院应当通过三种方式为基本权利提供司法保护:如果法律有保护基本权利的具体规定,法院应当直接适用法律;如果法律对基本权利的保护只作了抽象规定,法院应当对有关抽象立法进行合宪解释之后予以适用;如果法律没有作出保护基本权利的任何规定,法院可以直接适用宪法的基本权利条款。     

泰国曼谷民办非全日制华文教育的现状与特色

民办非全日制华文教育是泰国华文教育的两大体系之一。其基本特征为:产权私立,以补习学校为主要办学形式;商业化运作,以社会需求为导向,重视信用培育、品牌塑造、市场开发和公众评价;规模较大,生源多样化;师资性别年龄学历学缘结构趋于合理,年轻化、专业化和职业化倾向明显。相对优越的教学条件、较为严谨的教学规范、灵活的班级与课程设置以及注重华语交际能力的培养模式,使其在华教领域呈现多方面的优势。民办非全日制华文教育的发展,将华教触角从学校延伸到社会,从学生扩大到所有人群,既增加了受众,也深化了层次,提升了华文教育的效率、质量和社会影响力,促进了华文教育的推广和中泰文化交流。     

晚清领事保护的发展及其局限

对于领事保护的推动,就融合有政治与人权双重因素。当然,这一双重因素的影响又是随着历史的发展而有所不同的。尽管世界最早的领事保护实践可以追溯至古希腊城邦时期,而中国最早的领事保护实践却只能追溯至晚清时期。当时的清政府迫于内外压力,逐步转变对华侨的"叛民"、"罪民"和"弃民"等观念,从而展开了"立约保护"、"领事机关的调查与交涉"等形式(甚至还包括军舰巡航等军事方式)的领事保护。晚清政府领事保护的发展是与其华侨观念及政策的转变密切相关的。清政府华侨政策和领事保护的变化,根本上还是以巩固和发展清朝的统治为出发点的,政治因素在其中居于主导地位。这也就是"家国一体"型国家的局限性所在。     

Mental health law and the UN Convention on the rights of persons with disabilities

People with a mental illness may be subject to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), depending on definitions of terms such as ‘impairment’, ‘long-term’ and the capaciousness of the word ‘includes’ in the Convention's characterisation of persons with disabilities. Particularly challenging under the CRPD is the scope, if any, for involuntary treatment.     

“The ladder of the law has no top and no bottom”: How therapeutic jurisprudence can give life to international human rights

In the past two decades, therapeutic jurisprudence (TJ) has become one of the most important theoretical approaches to the law. But, there has, as of yet, been puzzlingly little written about the relationship between TJ and international human rights law. To be sure, there has been some preliminary and exploratory work on the relationship between TJ and international law in general, but virtually nothing on its relationship to international human rights law in a mental disability law context. This paper seeks to focus on this lack of consideration, to speculate as to why that might be, and to offer some suggestions as to how to infuse some new vitality and vigor into this important area of law and social policy.