Trade between Japan and Europe and the World Trade Development in the 16th-17th Century

Trade between Japan and the Europe lasted for about a century in the 16th-17th Century and the trade between the two promoted the commodity exchange between the East and the West, the packaging technological progress of commodities, the spread of crops and the formation of the world trade circle. In summary, the trade between Japan and the Europe, as part of the world trade development, constitutes an important part of the exchange history between the East and the West.     

Legal origin and intellectual property rights: an empirical study in the prerecorded music sector

This article aims at identifying differences in copyright protection in prerecorded music markets, and more specifically the impact of the legal system on the demand for original music CDs. To this end, we use a panel of 28 OECD countries in the period 1999–2005. After testing alternative specifications, our results show that differences in legal origin lead to differences in intellectual property rights enforcement. Our results also consistent with previous studies that find that common law countries have more secure property rights.

海上运输中货物控制权研究

2009年联合国《全部或部分海上国际货物运输合同公约》首先从国际条约层面设立了海上运输途中的货物控制权法律制度,实现了海上货物运输法律制度与货物贸易法律制度之间的衔接,保障了卖方托运人或单证持有人在一定条件下对货物进行控制的权利。这是对国际海上货物运输法律制度的重大完善。货物控制权虽不同于物权,但对于权利主体来说,其在一定程度上却发挥了物权的作用。不论中国是否加入该公约,该制度都将对我国海上运输立法与司法实践产生重大影响。     

简评《鹿特丹规则》对无单放货之规定

无单放货一直是航运实务操作上经常发生之问题,就承运人而言,其对无单放货究竟应当负担何种责任?实务上对于经常发生无单放货之类型又为何?经2008年12月联合国大会第六十三届大会第六十七次全体会议审议通过的《联合国全程或者部分国际海上货物运输公约》(又称《鹿特丹规则》),对无单放货作出了新的规定。在界定无单放货概念的基础上,归纳航运实践中无单放货的几种模式,分析无单放货的法律性质,认为将无单放货定性为侵权与违约责任之竞合,允许提单持有人择一行使权利,对请求者而言,保护较为周延,同时介绍《鹿特丹规则》关于无单放货的规定,对其允许在一定条件下按照一定程序可不凭提单放货这一创举性规定进行评析。     

解读“无单放货”最新司法解释

无正本提单交付货物,简称＂无单放货＂,是航运实践中普遍存在的问题,也是海商法理论界长期争论的热点问题。《中华人民共和国海商法》对此仅作了极其笼统的规定,并不具有可操作性。有鉴于此,最高人民法院于2009年2月26日公布了《关于审理无正本提单交付货物案件适用法律若干问题的规定》。该司法解释是继《中华人民共和国海商法》颁行以来关于提单法律制度的最重要的一部法律文件,从司法实践的角度对无单放货问题作了全面细致的规定,共15个条文,均具有鲜明的裁判法意义,权威而实用,必将对中国航运实务产生重大而深远的影响。通过解读这部无单放货最新司法解释所确立的一些重要法律制度,为航运相关从业人员提供有益的参考。     

Are minorities free riders? Applying the social resistance framework to public goods production in Central-Eastern Europe

One of the key reasons for the scholarly and policy concern about the rising levels of ethnic diversity is its apparently detrimental effect on the production of public goods. Although numerous studies have tackled that issue, there is still much ambiguity as to the precise micro-level mechanisms underpinning this relationship. In this article, a novel theoretical explanation for this relationship is proposed, building on the social resistance framework. This proposition is tested using a new cross-sectional public opinion survey covering 14,536 respondents in 817 neighbourhoods across 11 Central Eastern European countries. Analysing national minorities defined by postwar border changes means one can overcome the endogeneity problem faced by research based on immigrant groups. The findings show that it is the combination of a minority group's discrimination and its spatial clustering that makes minorities reluctant to contribute to public goods. The article constitutes a novel theoretical and methodological contribution to the research on the effects of diversity on public goods provision.     

Electric Shock: The 2012 India Blackout and Public Confidence in Politicians

How do disruptions in basic public service delivery shape people’s perceptions of politicians? We offer evidence from the July 2012 blackout in India, the largest in human history. Using data from the India Human Development Survey, we compare confidence in politicians between households that were surveyed during the outage and affected by it (treatment) and only days before it (control). Balance statistics show that the treatment and control groups are statistically indistinguishable, and further tests indicate that there was no disturbance to the pattern of surveying. Far from undermining public confidence in politicians, the outage increased it, as citizens reacted to the anxiety created by the crisis. The implications are normatively troubling, as politicians seem to have reaped benefits from disruptions in public service delivery.     

解决农村公共产品供给困境的路径探讨

目前,解决农村公共产品的供给困境已成为农村发展的关键。鉴于农村公共产品主要还是由政府提供,在委托——代理的理论框架下,根据委托与代理之间的利益差别性以及个体追求利益最大化的理性导致集体行为非理性的理论预设,文章从多元利益博弈的角度,对政府（中央政府和地方政府）与农民在农村公共产品供给中基于各自的理性选择却导致非合作博弈的困局进行解读,并提出正和博弈的有效治理途径。     

委托—代理与农村供水系统制度创新——以山东省临朐县农村供水协会为例

我国偏远山区的农村供水只能作为一种公共产品由政府来提供.本文以委托-代理理论为工具,结合实例,分析了农村水利工程经营权的代理人的选择问题.本文的结论是由于能够明晰产权、弱化信息不对称问题、减少委托-代理层次,选择县农村供水协会作为集体产权的最终代理人是有效率的产权安排形式.本文的结论可以推广到涉及公共品的其他领域.