Parity,Power and Representative Politics: The Elusive Pursuit of Gender Equality in Europe

In recent years the concept of parity democracy has rapidly risen up the European political agenda. Using a threefold typology of sex-quotas, this article undertakes a classification of the measures taken by the 15 old E.U. member states to improve the gender balance in representative assemblies. This is then used as the basis for an exploration of the advantages and disadvantages of the parity approach as a tool to promote gender equality, including the constitutional obstacles which stand in its way. The article goes on to present a comparative study of several national systems in which attempts to achieve parity democracy have been pursued, concluding that, in order to maximise their effectiveness, parity measures must operate within a system of unbiased political structures and be properly adjusted to suit the particularities of individual national electoral regimes.     

The Fragility of Law: Anti-Jewish Decrees,Constitutional Patriotism,and Collaboration Belgium 1940–1944

In October and November 1940, the German Military Command which ruled conquered Belgium, introduced a series of measures aimed at the identification and exclusion of the Jews of that country. The Belgian government of the day refused to allow the measures to be incorporated into Belgian law, but did permit, under their reading of the Hague Convention, government departments and local administrations to assist in implementing the German anti-Jewish Decrees. The Brussels Bar, Prosecutors and Court of Cassation refused to accept the authority of the Occupier to violate basic rights guaranteed under the Belgian Constitution. Officials in Antwerp, on the other hand, struck all lawyers identified as "Jews" from the Roll. This article examines these instances of "constitutional patriotism" and "constitutional betrayal" by these actors in the Belgian legal system, and offers some preliminary discussion of important questions about our historical and current understandings of legality, legitimacy and citizenship in light of this part of the Belgian experience of law under Nazi occupation. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

宪政文化在近代中国的发展及其启示

根深蒂固的传统文化中心主义和"富强为体、宪政为用"的实用理性主义使近代中国的宪政建设多了几分曲折与坎坷。宪政的先声———自由主义的有效性在进入中国之初就潜伏着问题,这些问题消解了它的真正内涵,导致了一种文化上的误读。中国只有传统文化与宪政文化有机结合,才能结出幸福之果。     

宪法监督制度及其完善——《监督法》草案有关宪法监督制度缺位之思考

2002年8月底首次提交人大审议的<监督法>草案,标志着人大对"一府两院"监督的法制化和规范化,但其仍然还有许多议题未获得明确和解决;其中宪法监督制度的缺位就是一大遗憾.建立宪法监督机构本应是<监督法>的首要解决问题,如果监督法回避这个问题,就不能起到其应有的作用,究其原因主要为,如果在人大内设立一个专门委员会,就会出现一个理论上的矛盾,当权力机关自身违宪,这个委员会该怎么处理.按照现行宪法的规.定,专门委员会不能对权力机关实施监督,也不能对违宪问题作出处理.同时,如果在全国人大之外或之上设立这样的机构,显然有违现行体制,原因在于人大本身就是负责监督宪法和法律实施,怎么可能在其之上或之外再设立一个机关?笔者以为,宜在我国设立全国人民代表大会领导下的与人大常委并列的宪法监督委员会,实施宪法监督职能;在三者职权划分上,全国人民代表大会仅负责宪法的制定、修改与废除以及其他立法之外的职能,其他立法职能委托全国人大常务委员会执行;全国人大宪法监督委员会负责实施宪法监督.     

改革是社会主义中国的强国之路——邓小平改革理论探析

改革是邓小平理论最重要的内容,是决定当代中国命运的历史性决策,是新时期我国最鲜明的特征。本文系统探讨分析了邓小平关于我国社会主义改革的必然性、迫切性,改革的对象、目标和性质,以及改革同发展与稳定的关系。这对于深入学习邓小平理论,深化我国改革具有重要的现实意义。     

Assessing Stability and Change in Criminal Offending: A Comparison of Random Effects, Semiparametric, and Fixed Effects Modeling Strategies

An important theoretical problem for criminologists is an explanation forthe robust positive correlation between prior and future criminaloffending. Nagin and Paternoster (1991) have suggested that the correlationcould be due to time-stable population differences in the underlyingproneness to commit crimes (population heterogeneity) and/or thecriminogenic effect that crime has on social bonds, conventionalattachments, and the like (state dependence). Because of data andmeasurement limitations, the disentangling of population heterogeneityand state dependence requires that researchers control for unmeasuredpersistent heterogeneity. Frequently, random effects probit models havebeen employed, which, while user-friendly, make a strong parametricassumption that the unobserved heterogeneity in the population follows anormal distribution. Although semiparametric alternatives to the randomeffects probit model have recently appeared in the literature to avoid thisproblem, in this paper we return to reconsider the fully parametric model. Viasimulation evidence, we first show that the random effects probit modelproduces biased estimates as the departure of heterogeneity from normalitybecomes more substantial. Using the 1958 Philadelphia cohort data, we thencompare the results from a random effects probit model with a semiparametricprobit model and a fixed effects logit model that makes no assumptions aboutthe distribution of unobserved heterogeneity. We found that with this dataset all three models converged on the same substantive result—evenafter controlling for unobserved persistent heterogeneity, with models thattreat the unobserved heterogeneity very differently, prior conduct had apronounced effect on subsequent offending. These results are inconsistentwith a model that attributes all of the positive correlation between priorand future offending to differences in criminal propensity. Sinceresearchers will often be completely blind with respect to the tenabilityof the normality assumption, we conclude that different estimationstrategies should be brought to bear on the data.     

对法的发展阶段的哲学思考

本文以哲学的否定之否定规律作为方法论 ,对法的发展过程进行再思考 ,认为法应该经历以下三个发展阶段 :习惯法阶段 (肯定 )———国家法阶段 (否定 )———世界法阶段 (否定之否定 )。     

论公民养老权的权利属性

理论法学对养老问题的关注是从权利的角度出发,考察养老权的生成与制度化,探讨养老权的权利属性。养老权是一项基本人权,它与公民的生存权密切相关。养老权属于宪法性权利,是公民享有的社会权利之一。     

非政府组织发展与我国社会稳定的关系

改革开放以来，我国非政府组织如雨后春笋般蓬勃发展，在促进基层民主政治建设、社会治理、经济建设等方面发挥了积极作用，取得了显著成绩，日益引起社会各界的关注。特别是在应对灾变、群体性事件等突发事件中所充当的“第三方”的重要角色，使得非政府组织在维护社会稳定过程中的重要性日益凸现。但其消极影响也逐步显现出来，在某种程度上成为我国政府社会治理工作面临的一项新挑战。     

和谐社会的宪政价值

和谐社会乃宪政国家之基础。所谓和谐社会的宪政价值,即指和谐社会的建构对于宪政国家建设的助动性和积极性。这种助动性和积极性集中体现为和谐社会的建构有助于宪政国家所必需的社会基础和社会环境的形成。因为,构建和谐社会,就是要促使社会各阶层的融合与团结,就是要推动社会与政府之间的良性互动与合作,就是要塑造公平与正义的公民文化,就是要构建规范、民主与法治的社会机制。而所有这些,都是宪政国家建设不可或缺的基本条件。