Regulating human control over autonomous systems

In recent years, many sectors have experienced significant progress in automation, associated with the growing advances in artificial intelligence and machine learning. There are already automated robotic weapons, which are able to evaluate and engage with targets on their own, and there are already autonomous vehicles that do not need a human driver. It is argued that the use of increasingly autonomous systems (AS) should be guided by the policy of human control, according to which humans should execute a certain significant level of judgment over AS. While in the military sector there is a fear that AS could mean that humans lose control over life and death decisions, in the transportation domain, on the contrary, there is a strongly held view that autonomy could bring significant operational benefits by removing the need for a human driver. This article explores the notion of human control in the United States in the two domains of defense and transportation. The operationalization of emerging policies of human control results in the typology of direct and indirect human controls exercised over the use of AS. The typology helps to steer the debate away from the linguistic complexities of the term “autonomy.” It identifies instead where human factors are undergoing important changes and ultimately informs about more detailed rules and standards formulation, which differ across domains, applications, and sectors.     

Toward “hardened” accountability? Analyzing the European Union's hybrid transnational governance in timber and biofuel supply chains

The voluntary/mandatory divide is a constant feature of scholarly debates on corporate accountability for sustainability in global supply chains. A widely held assumption is that the addition of state authority to private transnational governance in global supply chains will “harden” accountability and, thus, promote more sustainable production. The state's ability to set legally binding requirements is expected to coerce companies into complying. The hybridization of private and state authority is seen to strengthen good practice in private authority. This empirical study questions these assumptions based on an analysis of two hybrid governance arrangements for sustainability in global supply chains: the EU's Timber Regulation (EUTR) and Renewable Energy Directive (RED). The results demonstrate that both EUTR and EU-RED yield sector wide efforts of compliance and to this extent can be seen as enhancing accountability in the sense of answerability. At the same time, we find that the policies in both cases are not more demanding, nor enforced strictly, the latter putting into question their potential to coerce companies. Further, a “hardening” of accountability is at least obscured as both EUTR and EU-RED have stripped private authority they employ in their hybrid transnational governance from the need to establish legitimacy with a broader audience. This makes legal compliance and cost-effectiveness the core factor for companies’ efforts to demonstrate compliance. Our findings hence question whether the EUTR and EU-RED have led to “hardened” accountability compared to private transnational governance, and ask for an empirical, more nuanced understanding of what there is to gain or lose from hybridizing private and state authority in transnational governance.     

Can private governance boost public policy? Insights from public–private governance interactions in the fisheries and electricity sectors

Based on the inductive analysis of two parallel cases of private environmental governance – private, market-driven fisheries governance and private, market-driven governance for electricity decarbonization – this paper uncovers a trigger for positive public policy spillovers from private environmental governance. It identifies circumstances that prompt groups of business actors working as private regulators to also take on a role as public policy advocates and supporters, revealing a potential for private governance initiatives that are targeted at a particular environmental problem to serve as a bolster for the public regulatory governance of that problem as well. Both private governance cases at the basis of this analysis feature groups of business actors seeking to meet voluntary sustainability goals through the tools of private governance (specifically, through flexing buyer power and private authority in an effort to reform environmentally problematic practices among particular groups of suppliers). In both cases, the business's inability to attain private sustainability goals though private governance means alone has given rise to business demand for facilitative public environmental policy and regulation. The analysis presented in this paper thus points to the occurrence of a particular and intriguing pattern of complementarity between private authority and public policy – one where public policy is called on to fill gaps left by private environmental governance and authority. And it identifies key conditions for such private-governance-driven recentering of public policy to occur, namely the presence of private supply chain greening goals and commitments that are economically, reputationally, and/or competitively critical for businesses to attain, combined with shortfalls in the capacity of businesses' private authority to bring about such attainment. The two case analysis further suggests the importance of ENGOs in identifying and activating some of the opportunities for leveraging shortfalls in private environmental governance to the advantage of public environmental policy and regulation.     

回顾与前瞻:澳门特区公共行政改革

回归以来,澳门特区政府推出形式多样的公共行政改革措施,在重组政府架构,简化行政程序,规范行政行为,提升服务素质,完善公职制度,制定施政规划,提高施政透明度,强化政策制定能力、危机处理能力以及区域合作能力等方面取得重要进展。然而,澳门特区公共行政仍然存在不足之处,主要表现在政府职能没有得到系统梳理、行政组织设置过度专业化、问责制度缺乏执行机制、治理人才缺乏相应选拔培养机制、葡式行政制度缺陷尚未得到根本改革等方面。因此,澳门特区政府需要在既有改革的基础上推进新的改革。     

习近平全面依法治国新理念新思想新战略对法治理论的发展

习近平全面依法治国新理念新思想新战略对国家治理意义重大,是中国特色社会主义法治理论的最新成果。其汲取了古今中外各类法治理论的有益元素,对法治理论做了七项创新发展,即建设法治中国、建设中国特色社会主义法治体系、坚持"三个核心要义"、坚持"共同推进、一体建设"、完善党内法规体系与实现依规治党、着力实现制度现代化、统筹国内法治和国际法治;还对法治理论做了十五项拓展深化,即关于依法治国方针、坚持党的领导、法治为民、法治经济、法律面前人人平等、科学立法、严格执法、公正司法、全民守法、权力监督、德法并重、改革和法治关系、加强社会治理、政法机关职能、法治环境建设的拓展深化。习近平全面依法治国新理念新思想新战略具有强大的生命力,继承了马克思主义法治理论系列成果,传承了中华传统法律文化精华,吸收了世界法治理论精华,且勇于探索当代中国法治实践。     

社会治理研究的五个视角--兼论其存在问题与发展趋势

社会治理问题是当下国内的研究热点，虽然研究成果纷繁复杂，但大致可以归纳到五个视角进行讨论。通过这种分类研究有助于更好地理解社会治理理论，创新社会治理实践。目前社会治理研究的困境主要在于理论研究脱离社会实践、西方理论脱离中国国情等三个方面。未来对社会治理问题的研究要注重四个方面的有机结合，探索建立适合中国国情的社会治理体系。     

文明实践与基层社会治理中的民情再造

新时代文明实践是畅通国家与社会之间精神通道的铸魂工程,也是基层社会民情再造的关键举措。有效推进新时代文明实践工作,不仅要关注制度与组织层面的运行过程,还要理解个体与情感维度的微观机制。借助空间、资源与行动三个向度的有效整合,文明实践形成了组织与制度层面的良序运行。引入互动仪式链理论,进一步分析组织行动中的情感机制,是理解文明实践微观机制的关键。在情感聚合、情感锦标赛、情感可视化三重机制之下,文明实践实现了情感链条转换、正向情感增能与情感过程管理,基层治理的民情基础也得以再造。情感视角的民情再造解读与"过程—机制"的双层分析,拓展了组织制度分析的局限,丰富了基层治理研究中的微观机制讨论。     

Promoting the Modernization of China’s Governance System and Capacity in Line with the Rule of Law

Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) held in 2012, XI Jinping, General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee, has made a series of vital expositions on the promotion of modernization of the national governance system and capacity in line with the rule of law. The law is the most important tool for governing a country, and the rule of law supports the national governance process and capacity. Promoting the rule of law on all fronts is an essential requirement for developing socialism with Chinese characteristics and promoting the modernization of the national governance system and capacity. Comprehensive law-based governance in all areas should be promoted to advance the modernization of national governance. Furthermore, law-based thinking and methods should be used to address difficulties and challenges faced in this modernization process.     

我国公司治理法律制度的弊端检讨及完善路径

我国的公司治理立法呈现出割裂性、矛盾性与过渡性的特征,问题并不在于立法模式的选择,而在于立法体例的设计不当。目前的最佳解决途径是改变既有的公司立法体例,抛弃有限责任公司和股份有限公司的传统分类,将公司分为开放型公司和封闭型公司来有针对性地设计公司治理制度。规则应进一步细化,仅仅对开放型公司强制规定公司内部治理制度,对封闭型公司则赋予更多的自主权,由股东在章程中自由进行公司组织机构的设置。通过立法体例的改革和规则的细化来满足私法对自由价值的追求和商主体对成本的控制,保障公司营利性目标的实现。     

区域环保督察的功能定位及制度完善

跨区域环境治理需要地方政府间的密切协作,同时也离不开具有更高权威的主体的介入。作为我国的跨区域环境保护管理机构,环保督察局应当在跨区域环境治理中发挥积极的作用。然而,由于功能缺位,长期以来区域环保督察机构在跨区域环境治理方面所能发挥的作用非常有限。解决这一问题的关键在于明确我国区域环保督察机构在跨区域环境治理中的功能定位。基于我国的生态环境治理实践,通过对“污染影响跨区域”和“污染源跨区域”两大类我国目前主要的跨区域环境问题进行分析可知,区域环保督察机构应当担任“监督者”而非“管理者”的角色。充分借鉴中央环保督察的制度框架,区域环保督察机构应当通过构建跨区域环境问题的信息和线索收集机制、督促整改机制和问责启动机制实现对地方政府涉跨区域环境问题执法的有效监督,从而发挥区域环保督察机构的跨区域环境治理功能。