环境公益诉讼的性质识别、原告寻找与审理机关专门化

环境公益诉讼因缺乏有力立法支撑,处于一种司法实践先于立法的混乱局面。从对2007年1012年国内公开报道的30起环境公益诉讼案件的司法裁判文书进行实证研究发现：环境公益诉讼无论诉讼目的还是救济方式均不同于传统诉讼,它是在原有诉讼体系上“重生”的一种新型诉讼;为实现维护环境公益的目的,这样一种新型诉讼的原告资格应赋予公民个人、环保团体、环境行政机关及检察机关,并且应由专门审判机关进行审理。     

Environmental protection and US–Asia relations: a policy of disconnect

Despite the post-September 11 focus on regional security and the continued emphasis on regional economic cooperation, environmental degradation should not be overlooked as an important issue for US policy in and relationship with the Asia-Pacific. It is an important issue in its own right, presenting the countries of the region with ecological, economic and social (human security) challenges. There are both ethical and instrumental impulses for the United States, as a rich indus­trialised country and as a disproportionate consumer of resources and polluter of global waste, to provide environmental assistance to the Asia-Pacific. Despite global demands that the ‘new’ new world (environmental) order should be based on solidarity and collective responsibility, neither US environmental policy towards the region nor the regional consequences of its international environmental policy more generally meet this test. The US is fundamentally self-regarding rather than other-regarding in the various dimensions of its environmental relationship with the region. The consequences for both the region and for the US may be substantial. Continued environmental degradation in the region has the potential to undermine other US policy goals, in terms of its reputation, it economic objectives and even its more orthodox geopolitical security objectives.     

Beyond birds: Biopower and birdwatching in the world of Audubon

ABSTRACT

This paper surveys the nascent experiments in political ecology underway in predominantly Kurdish areas of south-eastern Turkey, known as Bakûr, and Rojava (northern Syria). The Kurdish freedom movement is attempting to consolidate a social revolution with ecology at its heart in a most unpromising context, given its ongoing struggle against Islamic State and regional embargoes. This greening of its ideology can be significantly attributed to the influence of American social ecologist Murray Bookchin, an inspiration for Kurdish attempts to implement democratic confederalism, which comprises principles of direct democracy, gender equality and ecological well-being in a needs-based economy. The Mesopotamian Ecology Movement has emerged from activist campaigns opposing dam construction, climate change and deforestation in the region, to inform ecology councils tasked with formulating policies that reflect this philosophical paradigm shift. The essay considers the prospects for the ecological initiatives in Turkish and Syrian Kurdistan. It argues that, confronted by formidable challenges, expansion of the democratic confederal model beyond the heartlands of Bakûr and Rojava, and international solidarity, are preconditions for their endurance.     

区域环境治理中地方政府协调机制的构建

环境问题是一个关系到人类生存发展和社会进步的全局性问题。随着社会的发展和人类生活水平的提高,人们对于生活中的环境问题的重视程度也越来也高,对环境的治理越来越要求政府发挥更大作用。但是,环境治理是一个系统工程,需要众多的主体综合协作才能够取得好的成绩。各级地方政府要加强协作,构建和谐的区域性综合治理机制。     

Environmental crime prosecutions in Ireland, 2004–2014

Despite increased interest in environmental crime and green criminology, few studies address the use of criminal penalties in response to environmental crimes. A handful of published examples employ data from the United States or the Flanders court system, and little is known about how other nations punish environmental violations. Addressing this issue, the current study examined the use of criminal environmental penalties in Ireland from 2004 to 2014. Few criminal environmental cases (N = 147) and few environmental offenders (N = 154) were represented in these data over time. Consistent with the expectations of green/environmental crime researchers, mean penalties for environmental violations, which in Ireland only include fines and investigative cost recovery penalties, were rather small. Unlike in the US or Flanders, the majority of offenders were corporate offenders as opposed to individuals. Contextual factors related to Ireland’s economy, history and use of criminal sanctions should be used to interpret these factors, and prevent generalising from these data.     

Mapping Urban Revitalization: Using GIS Spatial Analysis to Evaluate a New Housing Policy

This longitudinal, multimethod study uses geographical information system (GIS) software to evaluate the community-wide impact of a neighborhood revitalization project. Unsystematic visual examination and analysis of GIS maps are offered as a complementary tool to quantitative analysis and one that is much more compelling, meaningful, and effective in presentation to community and nonscientific professional audiences. The centerpiece of the intervention was the development of a new, middle-class housing subdivision in an area that was declining physically and economically. This represents three major urban/housing policy directions: (1) the emphasis on home ownership for working-class families, (2) the deconcentration of poverty through development of mixed-income neighborhoods, and (3) the clean up and redevelopment of contaminated, former industrial brownfields. Resident survey responses, objective environmental assessment observations, and building permit data were collected, geocoded at the address level, and aggregated to the block level on 60 street blocks in the older neighborhoods surrounding the new housing in two waves: during site clearing and housing construction (Time 1: 1993–95) and three years post-completion (Time 2: 1998–99). Variables mapped include (a) Time 1–2 change in self-reported home repairs and improvements, (b) change in the assessed physical condition of yards and exteriors of 925 individual residential properties, (c) change in residents' home pride, and (d) a city archive of building permits at Time 2. Physical conditions improved overall in the neighborhood, but spatial analysis of the maps suggest that the spillover effects, if any, of the new housing were geographically limited and included unintended negative psychological consequences. Results argue for greater use of GIS and the street block level in community research and of psychological and behavioral variables in planning research and decisions.     

交通肇事犯罪原因探析

交通肇事犯罪一直是社会的热点。近年来,随着数起引起社会广泛影响的交通肇事大案以及《刑法修正案(八)》将危险驾驶行为纳入犯罪,新闻媒体与法律实务更加关注对交通肇事犯罪的评价。然而,目前学界研究此类犯罪多从刑法规制的角度探讨,而隐藏在犯罪背后的深层原因却鲜有研究。任何犯罪现象总有一定的犯罪原因的外在展现和结果状态,从交通的组成因素探讨其对交通肇事的联系和影响,有助于发现交通肇事的本质,为交通事故的预防提供重要参考。     

检察机关参与环境公益诉讼程序设计

新修订的《民事诉讼法》第55条将对污染环境行为提起诉讼这一内容正式纳入,为环境公益诉讼的提起提供了法律依据,但并未明确界定提起的主体。从检察机关参与环境公益诉讼的必要性及可行性入手,建立并完善检察机关参与环境公益诉讼的具体程序及检察机关自身机制,可为具体的实践操作提供参考。     

The Australian Environmental Policy Agenda

This paper seeks to identify major shifts in the Australian environmental policy agenda over the past fifty years, and discusses the possible causes of and variables affecting agenda change. The issue of what comprises ‘environment’ policy is discussed, with reference to overlaps and intersections with other policy sectors such as agriculture, public health, energy and regional affairs. While the diversity of the environment policy domain complicates any analysis of trends, there have been two persistent trends of (i) an expansion from a more narrowly to a more broadly defined suite of issue (from environment to sustainable development) and incorporation of environment into natural resource management, and (ii) an increasing diversity of policy instruments being used. Consistent with the wide variety of issues confronted, pragmatism and convenience are often as influential as political ideology or underlying trajectories. The drivers of policy change are diverse, including biophysical factors such as drought, political leaders and international policy developments, and punctuations are often better interpreted as intensification or redirections of past policy trajectories.     

The US and the Asian Development Bank: Origins,structure and lending operations

The dominant discourse related to the establishment of the Asian Development Bank revolves around its structure, functions and lending operation. But the self-serving role played by the US during its formative years has been largely neglected. This article focuses on the early years of the Bank (1967–1972) and American efforts to make it a subservient tool of American foreign policy. A close examination of American role and influence within the Bank during its formative stage illustrates how multilateral institutions, funded by rich countries, can be used to force poor nations adopt methods for dealing with their problems, at odds with their own interest.