Legitimate Power in a Mediated Age: Revisiting Carl J. Friedrich's “Authority,Reason and Discretion”

Although scholars of political communication study legitimacy and power consistently, we often overlook older works on the topic from political theory and philosophy that might give us guidance in a mediated age. Friedrich was a contemporary of Lazarsfeld, Merton, and so many of the great 20th-century social scientists we look to as providing the foundations for our field. This essay asks that we go back to Friedrich as well, and to others who found authority to be one of our most complex and important social phenomena.     

Visualising violence: legitimacy and authority in the ‘war on terror’

This paper explores the relationship between visual representation and claims to legitimacy in the current George W. Bush administration's ‘war on terror’. Drawing on discourse theoretical works that focus analytical attention on the power of visual representation in communicating authority and legitimacy, this paper argues that crucial to such communicative acts is the rendering of a receptive audience complicit in particular interpretations of the images in question. While various visual representations construct political subjectivity and agency in different ways, common to all interpretations is the centralisation of an authoritative narrative. It is argued that this authorial voice must be challenged in the formulation of a politics resistant to dominant discourses of security/counter-terrorism in the West.     

“Worth It If It Saves Just One Life”? Ethical Reservations Regarding AMBER Alert

This article provides an exploratory ethical critique of the AMBER Alert system. Using illustrative examples of actual AMBER Alerts and the public discourse regarding them, it notes potentially problematic impacts on victims and/or offenders, and investigation of child abduction cases, as well as the public discourse about the system in particular and threats to children in general. None of these issues have been adequately addressed either by system operators in their public portrayals of the system or rigorous research as to their practical impacts, or in the suggestion of possible remedies. At the heart of the open and unresolved ethical quandaries confronting the AMBER Alert system lies a failure on the part of system operators and supporters to acknowledge apparent limits to the system's effectiveness, and an exaggeration of its capacities in the absence of adequate evidence, which should be sought in earnest through rigorous research. The article argues that system operators should discuss AMBER Alert more candidly and downplay expectations to avert at least some of the problems its facile portrayal can engender. The article also provides directions for future research on the system—research which could either show some of the ethical reservations that are cited to be moot, or reveal ways they could be resolved.     

His master’s voice: H.L.A. Hart and Lacanian discourse theory

H.L.A. Hart’s jurisprudence seems antithetical to Jacques Lacan’s psychoanalysis. Professor Schroeder argues that, in fact, Hart’s concept of law has surprising similarities to Lacan’s ‘discourse of the Master’. Both reject a command theory of law: subjects do not obey law out of fear. Moreover, both insist that the authority of law is completely independent from its content. Anyone seeking to develop a psychoanalytically sophisticated critical legal theory should reconsider Hart. As insightful as his concept of the symbolic is, Lacan has no expertise in legal systems and does not discuss positive law per se. Although he posited a theory of ethics in his Seventh Seminar and the seeds of a jurisprudence are implicit within his theory, he offers no account of legal right, justice or what Hart misleadingly calls ‘morality’. A Lacanian jurisprudence must, therefore, be supplemented by other sources. Moreover, legal positivists should not dismiss psychoanalysis. As insightful as Hart’s jurisprudence is, his theories of legal subjectivity and linguistics are simplistic and his concept of law too narrow. He describes only one aspect of legal experience: obedience to law. He ignores what most legal actors do: Hart’s concept of law excludes the practice of law. Although Lacan’s ‘master’s discourse’ surprisingly parallels Hart’s jurisprudence, Lacan does not restrict the symbolic to the master’s discourse. It requires three other ‘discourses’. Lacan, therefore, supplements Hart. Specifically, Lacan’s fourth discourse describes the excluded practice of law and provides the mechanism by which ‘morality’ can critique law.

基于两岸四地警务合作的警学研讨话语体系之建构

两岸四地警学研讨机制需要梳理、研究和改进,科学建构警学研讨话语体系是系统解决相关问题的重要条件。可通以过规划话语主题,整合合作目标;巩固话语基础,营造合作环境;构建话语平台,推动合作深入;形成话语成果,促进推广应用,使两岸四地警学研讨在更广阔的领域有更科学、持久的发展,为深化两岸四地警务合作和促进经济社会繁荣稳定服务。     

The freedom of navigation in international law and the utility of international society discourse

In the international law of the sea, the emergence of new actors and systems influencing relations between states has lead to evolving rules and calls for the redefinition of the traditional issues such the allocation of jurisdiction and rights to states in its maritime zones. In the maritime domain, this is seen thrice in the evolution of the various maritime zones in the United Nations Conferences for the Law of the Sea （UNCLOS I, II and III）. In the maritime domain, there are certain actions that are not dependent on any state＇s consent. One of such is the rule of freedom of navigation. This paper, argues for the possibilities of concomitance between international law and studies in international society based on the growing recognition of the importance of examining the sociological and historical element in rule development. This paper focuses on a rule in the international law of the sea with the aim of determining the extent to which norms have caused changes in rule development, if any. This method, known as the English School method of international relations, acknowledges the benefits of international law positivism in highlighting generality with the benefits of a normative discourse in highlighting alternatives and the utility of compliance. So, although the maritime domain is rooted in a state system, one where the parts interact as a whole, a branching-out analysis towards the normative discourse in the development of this rule will facilitate more understanding, as the case-specificity of most issues in the maritime domain cannot be overemphasised.     

欧洲女翻译家宣言——玛格丽特·泰勒对赞助修辞的颠覆性解构

在《〈骑士伟迹之镜〉译者序》中,玛格丽特·泰勒对权力阶层强加于作为他者存在的非权力阶层的赞助修辞、尤其是对该修辞所遵循的自贬—请求—报效的逻辑,进行了颠覆性的解构。研究其颠覆性本质、特征和意义,将为我国翻译界研究文艺复兴之初的欧洲女性翻译家的创作状况,以及欧洲女性翻译写作话语权的形成,提供重要的参考。     

语篇分析在司法语境中的应用

法律语篇分析是从法学语言的视角研究与法学有关的种种语言现象,并运用语篇学的研究方法分析法学语言,包括立法语言、司法语言、法律科学语言、法学翻译以及法学古文等一切有关法律规则和法学研究的口语和书面语。司法语境中的语篇分析,是从微观的角度分析司法人员、律师和涉案当事人的各种语言现象,旨在解决司法过程中的语言证据收集、话语标记识别、语言环境分析、控辩双方对同一语言证据材料的不同理解可能导致不同审判结果等可能存在的一系列问题,促使我国司法实践部门对法律语言的更多关注,以拓宽我国法学语言界的研究视野,进一步提高工作效率。     

论"话语的秩序"--福柯话语理论的一次重要转折

《话语的秩序》是福柯话语理论中具有重要过渡意义的一个文本。其中,福柯不仅深入分析了话语的内部结构及其特征,而且分析了话语外部的控制因素,将话语与权力、社会机制联系在一起,从而开拓了话语的外部空间。这既是福柯对自己研究的一次总结,也昭示了福柯话语研究中新方法论的出现。