Ice Ice Baby: The De Facto Termination of Parental Rights by an Enforcement Agency

The current administration's zero tolerance stance on illegal immigration has resulted in the separation of thousands of families and the de facto termination of parental rights. While undocumented parents were always at risk of detainment, expanded immigration enforcement under the Trump administration has greatly increased that risk. Detainment has directly and indirectly resulted in the prolonged separation of parents from their children. This Note proposes a Department of Homeland Security Regulation that will require ICE to use the least restrictive methods to achieve its goals while emphasizing efforts to keep families together.     

Do the illegal and legal rents of politicians affect municipal election outcomes? Empirical evidence

This paper aims to analyse whether illegal (corruption) and legal rent extraction (high politicians’ wages) affect electoral outcomes at municipal level. We use an initial sample of 145 Spanish municipalities over 50,000 for two electoral periods: 2004–2007 (before the crisis) and 2008–2011 (during the crisis). Our findings show that neither illegal nor legal rent extraction impact on re-election in non-crisis times. However, we observe that citizens penalize legal rent extraction in the ballots during the crisis. Regarding the economic performance of the local governments, we find that its effect on re-election is important in non-crisis period. Nevertheless, in time of crisis, given that the economic situation is bad in general in the country, voters pay less attention to economic factors and focus on politicians’ behaviour.     

Experimentalism in transnational forest governance: Implementing European Union Forest Law Enforcement,Governance and Trade (FLEGT) Voluntary Partnership Agreements in Indonesia and Ghana

Over the past decade, the European Union (EU) has created a novel experimentalist architecture for transnational forest governance: the Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) initiative. This innovative architecture comprises extensive participation by civil society stakeholders in establishing and revising open‐ended framework goals (Voluntary Partnership Agreements [VPAs] with developing countries aimed at promoting sustainable forest governance and preventing illegal logging) and metrics for assessing progress toward them (legality standards and indicators) through monitoring and review of local implementation, underpinned by a penalty default mechanism to sanction non‐cooperation (the EU Timber Regulation that prohibits operators from placing illegally harvested wood on the European market). This paper analyzes the implementation of VPAs in Indonesia and Ghana, the two countries furthest advanced toward issuing FLEGT export licences. A central finding is the reciprocal relationship between the experimentalist architecture of the FLEGT initiative and transnational civil society activism, whereby the VPAs’ insistence on stakeholder participation, independent monitoring, and joint implementation review, underwritten by the EU, empowers domestic non‐governmental organizations with local knowledge to expose problems on the ground, hold public authorities accountable for addressing them, and contribute to developing provisional solutions.     

新形势下的非法集资特点及对策

当前的非法集资呈现出集资手段多样、新颖,侵害对象多元化,涉案数额巨大,犯罪组织严密,跨地区流动作案等特点。非法集资扰乱了正常的金融秩序,破坏了社会的安定团结,处理不当后果严重,寻找相应的防治对策是十分必要的。     

共犯与身份的中国问题

即便我国刑法总则缺乏共犯与身份的明文规定,通过借鉴域外理论与判例经验,根据共犯规定及共犯原理,也能妥当处理共犯与身份问题。根据身份是影响行为的法益侵害性还是行为人的非难可能性,可将身份区分为违法身份与责任身份;非身份者参与违法身份犯罪的,虽成立违法身份犯的共犯,但应减轻处罚;非身份者参与责任身份犯罪的,应分别定罪处罚。委派到非国有公司从事公务的国家工作人员只是一种责任身份,其伙同公司人员侵占本单位财产、收受贿赂、挪用本单位资金的,具有国家工作人员身份的分别成立贪污罪、受贿罪、挪用公款罪,公司人员则相应成立职务侵占罪、非国家工作人员受贿罪、挪用资金罪。     

加强普速线路非法通道管理的实践与思考

普速线路受其建设等级低、开放式管理等因素影响,沿线非法通道多,安全管理难度大,极易发生车辆肇事等危及行车安全事故。对此,要统一干部民警、地方政府、路内单位思想,采取拆除、绕行、改建等方式,提高宣传教育、治安整治、沟通协调能力,建立健全隐患排查、路内联控、综合治理机制,形成合力,齐抓共管,彻底根除隐患,确保常态长效。     

非法采矿牵连环境犯罪研究

非法采矿与侵害矿业环境是孪生关系,山体滑坡、地陷、毁林以及污染水源等损害价值特别巨大。但损害环境从未定罪而仅以非法采矿罪判刑,罪刑不相适应导致违法成本少于非法采矿的收益,催生非法采矿现象蔓延。因此,应认定非法采矿牵连系列矿业环境犯罪形态：毁坏财物罪、污染环境罪、滥伐林木罪以及非法占用耕地罪等。牵连犯罪广泛,不应有统一的处断原则,对于社会危害性较大、牵连关系度松散的非法采矿牵连矿业环境犯罪,应适用数罪并罚原则;对恢复环境、消除危险、填平损失等,还应适用非刑罚措施。     

侦查人员出庭作证问题的思考——《刑事诉讼法修正案（草案）》刍议

由于近年来发生的一系列冤假错案，侦查人员出庭作证问题成为了刑事诉讼研究的一大热点。侦查人员出庭作证对于保障犯罪嫌疑人的合法权益、规范侦查取证行为、促进公平正义、维护司法权威具有十分重要的意义。然而，在我国司法实践中，该制度的推行却困难重重。通过对相关现行法律法规的分析，可以看到，我国侦查人员出庭作证的确存在某些立法缺陷，建议《刑事诉讼法修正案（草案）》对侦查人员出庭作证问题予以完善。     

公布违法事实的法律属性分析

作为一种新型的政府规制手段，公布违法事实已经在我国当下诸多行政管理领域得到运用，并为环境保护、食品安全、产品质量及证券监管立法初步认可。法律概念用语的模糊、程序及责任规定的缺失，致使公布违法事实手段的运用呈现杂乱无序的格局。依托行政行为形式化原理，可对公布违法事实的法律属性作声誉罚、公共警告、行政处罚结果公开形式及行政强制执行手段的区分。鉴于公布违法事实手段的不当运用容易侵害到行政相对人的合法权益，应当分别从行使条件的拟订、正当程序的遵守和预防性救济机制的建构等三个方面对其进行有效控制。     

违法发放贷款罪司法认定中的疑难问题研究

违法发放贷款罪认定中有诸多疑难问题:违法向关系人发放贷款的情节认定问题、本罪与挪用资金罪的界限划定问题、本罪的罪过形式问题等。本罪罪过形式具有复杂性,违法发放贷款与违法向关系人发放贷款两种情况的罪过形式要相区别,违法向关系人发放贷款的罪过形式只能是故意的,而违法发放贷款的罪过形式既可以是故意,也可以是过失的。