Journeys to the limits of first-hand knowledge: politicians’ on-site visits in zones of conflict and intervention

ABSTRACT

This article explores the practice and political significance of politicians’ journeys to conflict zones. It focuses on the German example, looking at field trips to theatres of international intervention as a way of first-hand knowledge in policymaking. Paying tribute to Lisa Smirl and her work on humanitarian spaces, objects and imaginaries and on liminality in aid worker biographies, two connected arguments are developed. First, through the exploration of the routinized practices of politicians’ field trips the article shows how these journeys not only remain confined to the ‘auxiliary space’ of aid/intervention, but that it is furthermore a staged reality of this auxiliary space that most politicians experience on their journeys. The question is then asked, second, what politicians actually experience on their journeys and how their experiences relate to their policy knowledge about conflict and intervention. It is shown that political field trips enable sensory/affectual, liminoid and liminal experiences, which have functions such as authority accumulation, agenda setting, community building, and civilizing domestic politics, while at the same time reinforcing, in most cases, pre-existing conflict and intervention imaginaries.     

Security development and the Palestinian Authority: an examination of the ‘Canadian factor’

The Palestinian Authority has become a major recipient of development assistance with a primary area of focus on the development of security capacities. As a case study in the securitisation of aid, this article demonstrates how Canadian development aid has been almost exclusively aimed towards areas of security enhancements. Detailing what Canadian security development actors call ‘the Canadian factor’, the article argues that the securitisation of aid is a mobilisation of security expertise to advance the strategic interests of major donors. In detailing the donors as beneficiaries of aid, the article describes how the ‘success story’ of development aid in Palestine is a reflection of how security aid functions to advance the interests of donors as opposed to populations under the recipient authorities.     

Sex,Statistics, Peacekeepers and Power: UN Data on Sexual Exploitation and Abuse and the Quest for Legal Reform

The UN Secretariat provides annual statistics on allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse made against peacekeeping personnel, with reduced numbers of allegations leading to claims of success for the UN's ‘zero tolerance’ policy. This article explores the use of data as ‘technologies’ of global governance, to examine the function that these annual statistics serve for the UN and the impact that they have on calls for legal reform. Thus far, the statistics have attracted little academic appraisal. Yet, they have been used to establish the UN's authority to resolve the ‘problem’ of sexual exploitation and abuse, diminishing the space for critique of UN policy and undermining the quest for improved legal arrangements.     

They Sell Skulls Online?! A Review of Internet Sales of Human Skulls on eBay and the Laws in Place to Restrict Sales

Internet sales of human remains occur despite the existence of laws prohibiting such action in most jurisdictions. The most popular public platform for online sales, eBay, allows users to postskeletal material for sale, largely anonymously and without much fear of legal repercussions. This survey of skeletal sales was conducted 10 years after the first article published about online human remains sales. A review of current laws reveals that, while many states have laws that restrict any sale of human remains, those laws have questionable deterrent effect. Assessing the skeletal material posted for sale provides law enforcement agencies with a necessary starting point to curtail the sale of human remains through enforcement of existing laws. Ultimately, the goal is to stem the commodification of such items and to recover skeletal material, especially that which may be of archaeological or forensic significance, and provide the proper final disposition for such material.     

Legal responses to child sexual abuse cases in the Children’s Court of Victoria: study findings on a case-management approach

Child sexual abuse cases present Children’s Courts with distinctive challenges. The highly conflictual nature of child sexual abuse cases means they do not lend themselves to the usual adversarial court processes that characterise the conduct of Magistrate Court matters in Australia. With this in mind, the Children’s Court in Victoria established for 12 months in 2013 a pilot specialised judicial list (known as the ‘D’ List) which offered an intensive Magistrate-led case management approach to child sexual abuse cases in the Family (child protection) Division of the Court. The operation of the List was evaluated to assess the suitability and effectiveness of this approach, and to investigate the challenges associated with managing and deciding this class of cases. The findings confirmed that the List provided better management of cases and reduced delay. Given this, the Court is continuing the judicially proactive intensive case management approach and dedicated list for child sexual abuse matters and extending it to regional courts; believing it to be a more effective approach to managing and deciding this complex class of cases.     

European Law Beyond ‘Ever Closer Union’ Repositioning the Concept,its Thrust and the ECJ's Comparative Methodology

The article investigates competing understandings of European law. It supports, against the prevailing EU‐centred understanding, an ecumenical concept that embraces EU law, supplementing international instruments, the European Convention on Human Rights and, importantly, various domestic laws enacting or responding to such transnational law, as well as European comparative law. To keep the concept in sync with European politics, it posits a new idea that binds the parts together: to provide for a European legal space rather than further European integration (the ever closer union). This idea can also serve as European law's functional equivalent to forming one legal order. European law thus conceived grasps the puzzling complex of interdependent legal orders, sets a common frame for corresponding reconstructions (European composite constructions, legal pluralism, network theories, federalism or intergovernmentalism) and allows forces with diverging outlooks to meet in one legal field, on one more neutral disciplinary platform. Within this framework, European comparative law finds a new mission as well as a sound legal basis.     

“法律不知有害”质疑

我国大多数学者认为对事实的不知无害,对法律的不知有害,因而实务中对法律错误一般不予以救济。但事实上,不管是在罗马法上,还是在当代的大陆法系和英美法系,大部分国家都会对部分法律错误予以救济。而在确定何种法律错误可予以救济时,应充分考量在特定情况下对表意人"知法推定"的合理性以及表意人与第三人之间的利益衡量。     

通过司法判决塑造公众法治观念

通过司法判决塑造公众法治观念不仅具有必要性而且具有可能性。司法判决可以改善法治环境和人文条件,矫正传统清官文化与法治观念的错位与背离,可以使公众明晰客观事实与法律事实的疏离与亲和,可以为公众行为提供合理的预期结果,这是司法判决塑造公众法治观念的四个内在机理。公众朦胧权利意识的觉醒、互联网时代下的司法红利、裁判文书的公开以及司法判决的科学性化倾向是司法判决塑造公众法治观念的四种外在驱动力。司法的良性发展,个案确认以及固化一般规则,发挥指导性案例的指导作用,导引网民以及媒体理性参与和践行案例法治文化实践是司法判决塑造公众法治观念的5种必经路径。     

构建我国夫妻法定分别财产制度研究

我国实行法定财产和约定财产双轨制,但在目前的法定夫妻财产制度下,不能实现婚内赔偿请求。夫妻法定分别财产制度在很多国家及我国台湾地区均有规定。最高人民法院《关于适用〈中华人民共和国婚姻法〉若干问题的解释(三)》第4条规定了在夫妻关系存续期间可以对共有财产进行分割,可以认为我国开始尝试建立夫妻法定分别财产制。构建法定分别财产制,应明确该制度的适用范围、适用程序,并细化其法律效力。     

法学本科专业实践教学模式的重构

法学本科教育应确立职业教育的教育目标,并要围绕职业教育目标充实法学本科教育内容,重视学生法律职业技能、法律职业思维的训练,培养学生良好法律职业道德和法治理想。实践教学是完成法学教育内容,达成法学教育目标不可或缺的教学方式,由于受传统法学教育观念的影响,实践教学未得到应有的重视,因而存在着诸多问题,因此建立与理论教学平行独立的实践教学体系、丰富实践教学内容、改革实践教学方式势在必行。