黑社会性质组织的认定探析——以立法解释为视角

刑法典第294条对黑社会性质组织规定并不完整,于是全国人大常委会于2002年4月28日通过了相关的立法解释。立法解释对黑社会性质组织的界定可以概括为组织性特征、经济实力特征、行为手段特征和非法控制性特征,其中非法控制性特征是黑社会性质组织的本质特征,是区别于一般的犯罪集团最显著的特征。在认定黑社会性质组织时准确地把握立法解释,四个特征需要同时具备,既不可随意降低标准,也不可刻意拔高标准。     

法官对专家辅助人意见的采信与心证形成的路径分析

2012年《民事诉讼法》规定了专家辅助人两种出庭情形:与鉴定人进行质证;对案件所涉专业问题发表意见。两种情形不仅在事实认定中承担着本证与反证的不同功能,其意见效力、法官采信的逻辑亦有差别。目前,专家辅助人意见在我国不属于法定证据,2015年《民事诉讼法司法解释》将其视为当事人陈述的规定,更加弱化其效力,导致实践中法官在采信专家意见时难以操作。因此,赋予专家辅助人合法的诉讼地位和法定证据效力,并对专家辅助人出庭的条件、资质要求、意见属性、法院审查标准等方面予以规定,不仅完善立法,也具有非常重要的实践意义。     

The Internet and Parliamentary Democracy in Europe

The overall aim of this volume is to investigate the impact of new information and communications technologies (ICTs), in particular the Internet, upon parliamentary democracy in Europe. Through a comparative study of four parliaments (the British, European, Portuguese and Swedish), our research addresses three important dimensions of the impact of the Internet on parliamentary democracy, namely, the practices, principles and rules related to the use of the Internet in a parliamentary context. It is hoped that, by comparing the experiences of the four parliaments and their Members, a European perspective on the development of and issues about ‘parliamentary e-Democracy’ can be established. The main sources of data and methodologies employed in this volume include a questionnaire survey, content analysis of parliamentary websites, interviews with parliamentarians and parliamentary staff and research workshops. Here we highlight the main features of the individual contributions included in this volume.     

From a Top-Down to a Bottom-Up Approach to Legislative Oversight

Over the years there have been several studies of oversight in the context of the US Congress; much less attention, however, has been paid to the study of oversight in parliamentary systems. Comparative studies spearheaded by several international organisations in recent years offer a different perspective of legislative oversight. They emphasise a new concept, oversight potential, and suggest that strengthening this potential would help promote good governance, fight corruption and improve democracy. This study examines the concept of oversight potential in a pure parliamentary system – the Israeli Knesset. It shows that low potential impairs actual oversight in a parliamentary system that uses mainly police-patrol techniques as defined by the 1987 work of McCubbins and Schwartz. It suggests that increasing oversight potential will help improve the oversight outputs of the legislature. Finally, it develops a bottom-up legislative approach for measuring oversight potential, and by doing so it enriches this neglected field of research.     

The Time Path of Legislative Party Switching and the Dynamics of Political Competition: The Italian Case (1996–2011)

Political competition is more realistically described as a dynamic process rather than as a series of static stages in which parties compete over policy and government formation. This paper focuses on legislative party switching as the main manifestation of this endogenously evolving process, linking individual switching behaviour to policy and office incentives that are assumed to evolve throughout the life of the entire legislature. Using a new data set tracking the timing of MPs’ changes in party affiliations between 1996 and 2011 in Italy, it is found that switching is mainly motivated by policy reasons and that it is more likely during government formation periods and budget negotiations. These results are a consequence of the interplay between MPs’ ambition and the alternation of key phases in the legislative cycle.     

Explaining Final Term Changes in US Congressional Foreign Travel

Recent scholarship demonstrates US legislators acquire human capital (that is, contacts, knowledge, and skills) in Congress that maximises post-elective earnings because they anticipate re-entering the labour market after leaving office. This literature has not, however, addressed how legislators’ expectations of entering specific professions affect their in-office activities. This article examines this question within the context of final term, employment-particular changes in House members’ foreign travel. Representatives entering the private sector are predicted to travel more in the last period to augment their human capital in foreign affairs and signal their expertise to prospective employers, while retiring legislators are expected to travel less because they lack incentives to maintain productivity levels. Analysis supports the former but not the latter prediction.     

The Camorra closely observed

An article that discusses how information and communications technology (computer systems and data transmission) are used as ‘cyber weapons’ for criminal purposes. It canvasses a number of legislative policy options for controlling their misuse. The paper concludes with the view that implementing some form of cyber weapons laws – in the same vein as firearms legislation – would not only help ensure society's domestic well-being, but would also aid national security.     

Solitary Sunnah and Its Legislative Value Among the Muslim Jurists： Readings of Selected Examples

The science of hadith authentication and classification （ulum al-hadith） has been developed by Muslim scholars mostly based on critical analysis of the texts and chains of the reports （ahadith） that are attributed to Prophet Muhammad （s.a.w.）. Though this science is basically designed to identify the authentic reports which are truly the words, actions or tacit approvals of the Prophet （s.a.w.）, however, it has left its implications onfiqh （legal） opinions among the Muslim jurists （fuqaha）, who left contrasting legal opinions on certain issues offiqh, some of which are as a result of their differences on hadith classification, particularly classifications of hadith into solitary and recurrent reports. This paper uses analytical method, and intends to address the implications of hadith authentication and classification methods on the legislative power of the sunnah, with particular emphasis on the solitary sunnah and its legislative value among the Muslim jurists.     

论我国地方立法存在的问题及其解决

地方立法是我国立法的重要内容,我国地方立法存在缺乏必要性、具体性、越权严重、冲突广泛、操作性差等问题;这些问题导致大量立法资源被浪费,不利于法的价值的实现、社会主义法制的统一、法律作用的实现,法律适用无所适从、地方保护主义合法化。地方立法存在问题的原因主要是地方立法目的不当、立法主体立法技术的欠缺、地方立法主体观念滞后、立法依据不明、相应的国家机关怠于履行立法监督职责。解决地方立法问题的出路在于端正立法目的、更新立法观念、实行立法专业化、明确地方立法依据、强化立法监督责任,建立地方立法“良法”标准等。     

Media Coverage of Congress in the 1990s: Scandals,Personalities, and the Prevalence of Policy and Process

In this article, we provide a comprehensive, systematic examination of media coverage of Congress in the 1990s. Specifically, we content analyze over 2,600 congressional news stories from the New York Times and CBS Evening News from 1990 through 1998. We find that the news media covered substantive policy concerns and the legislative process quite regularly and that stories focusing on individual personalities and political scandals were comparatively infrequent. We also find that legislative maneuvering is a mainstay of congressional media coverage, and the democratic process is most often framed as conflict between parties and Congress and the president.