宪法监督模式差异性的成因分析

人们通常将宪法监督模式在总体上划分为四种典型的类型,即立法机关监督型、司法机关监督型、宪法委员会监督型和宪法法院监督型。不同的国家之所以要选择不同的模式,存在着诸多方面的原因,如理论基础、法律传统、历史际遇、司法体制等。对宪法监督模式差异性的成因进行多角度的考察,对我国宪法监督制度的改革有着十分重要的意义。     

ALMOST,BUT NOT QUITE: THE FAILURE OF NEW YORK'S GET STATUTE

The quandary of Jewish women unable to remarry because of their husbands’ refusal to grant them religious divorces is a real problem affecting real people. Husbands are wielding this lopsided power to “extort” money from their wives, obtain favorable child custody settlements, property settlements, and child support payments. The burgeoning divorce rate is certain to exacerbate this problem. Already, this situation has garnered international attention. In the wake of New York's legislative attempt to remedy this problem, countries, including the United Kingdom and Australia, have promulgated legislative solutions to this dilemma. New York is the only state in the United States to pass such a statute. Unfortunately, New York's statute is flawed because it is of limited applicability and still allows for situations in which the Jewish wife is civilly divorced but religiously married. This Note proposes amending New York's statute to make it applicable to any and all divorce proceedings and to any barrier to remarriage. This Note will further recommend that the proposed amended statute should be adopted worldwide.     

回族传统婚姻规范对我国《婚姻法》的影响

回族传统婚姻规范与我国的《婚姻法》有相通之处,但也有相悖甚至相冲突的地方。解决回族传统婚姻规范中存在的一些陈规陋习,必须对信教群众进行法制宣传和教育,严格执行《婚姻登记管理条例》,使回族传统婚姻规范逐渐纳入到社会主义法制轨道上来。     

The correlates of spouses' incongruent reports of marital aggression

Husbands' and wives' reports (n=97 couples) of engaging in or experiencing marital aggression were compared to determine congruence. Congruence was defined as spousal agreement on whether either spouse had been nonviolent, mildly violent, or severely maritally violent within the past year. Whereas approximately equal numbers of clinic couples were incongruent for husband and for wife violence (32% vs. 31%), only incongruence for husband violence (H W) was found to correlate with reports of affective and relationship functioning. Incongruent H W wives were more likely to be depressed and angry. H W incongruent wives were also more negative about the inter-spousal communication and rated the relationship as more unsatisfactory for them than did congruent wives. Incongruent H W husbands also perceived the relationship more negatively, but their levels of depression and anger did not differ from congruent H W husbands. These findings were not replicated for spouses who were incongruent for wife violence. Our results support the conclusion that spousal disagreement about H W violence has a more negative impact than does disagreement about wives' level of aggression.     

Regime Shifts in Japan and Switzerland?

This paper compares the development of the Japanese political economy regime and its repercussions for the party system with the, at least at first sight, contrasting case of Switzerland. Rather than pointing out the differences between the two countries, the comparison emphasizes the similarities: both countries are involved in a comparable regime shift, which has its origins in similar domestic structural and cultural shifts as well as in changes in the world economy. In both countries, the mismatch between the socioeconomic realities and the political configurations has been widening for many years. Since the early nineties, the much needed realignment in the party systems has gotten underway in Japan as well as in Switzerland, but it has not yet reached a new equilibrium. In Switzerland, however, the restructuring of the party system has proceeded more steadily and has gone farther than in Japan     

从收继婚风俗看明代的律例

明代的律例严格禁止收继婚，可是，严厉的法律不但没有根除收继婚，收继婚反而作为社会一种风俗习惯而普遍存在。为什么法律严格禁止却根除不了收继婚?为什么收继婚普遍存在而法律却显得苍白无力?这其中有政府对法律推行不力的原因，也有传统风俗习惯沉积的原因，更有伦理道德方面的因素。用法律去禁止近乎人情和社会基本认同的事情，固然有移风易俗方面的功效，但法律的公正性和严肃性必然要受到挑战，而有禁不止所带来的副作用，更合使法律的尊严受到破坏。     

加入世贸组织对中国法制的影响与我们的对策

我国加入世贸组织后,WTO的一系列规则将对我国法制产生深远的影响。我国应进一步加快法律的信息化,推动法律的全球化和促进法律的职业化等。协调国内法与WTO法的不一致,应完善立法工作,推进司法改革和加强法学教育。     

Mixed electoral rules’ impact on party systems

The growing literature about mixed electoral systems has addressed their effect on party systems, voting behavior, campaign strategies, legislative roll-call voting, and other issues in a handful of countries. But, the effect of mixed systems has not been fully evaluated cross-nationally or longitudinally. Using data from the World Bank’s Database of Political Institutions, we address this gap in the literature by investigating two related questions. First, do mixed electoral rules produce different election outcomes than other election rules? Second, are these results attenuated by the definitions of mixed systems that scholars employ? We find that mixed systems generate outcomes that are distinct from other electoral systems and that these findings are generally robust across different definitions.     

Malapportionment and democracy: A curvilinear relationship

This article examines electoral malapportionment by illuminating the relationship between malapportionment level and democracy. Although a seminal study rejects this relationship, we argue that a logical and empirically significant relationship exists, which is curvilinear and is based on a framework focusing on incumbent politicians' incentives and the constraints they face regarding malapportionment. Malapportionment is lowest in established democracies and electoral authoritarian regimes with an overwhelmingly strong incumbent; it is relatively high in new democracies and authoritarian regimes with robust opposition forces. The seminal study's null finding is due to the mismatch between theoretical mechanisms and choice of democracy indices. Employing an original cross-national dataset, we conduct regression analyses; the results support our claims. Furthermore, on controlling the degree of democracy, the single-member district system's effects become insignificant. Australia, Belarus, the Gambia, Japan, Malaysia, Tunisia, and the United States illustrate the political logic underlying curvilinear relations at democracy's various levels.