析自然法及对我国刑事法治的启示

自然法思想及其所蕴涵的价值对西方社会法治的发展产生了非常深远的影响。在自然法的发展过程中,西方社会和个人养成了信法、守法的品性,形成了刑事法治的良好运行环境;近代以来,西方法治思想包括自然法理论对我国法律的影响与日俱增,直接源于自然法理论的罪刑法定原则也已经明确规定在我国刑法中,但我国的法治现状并不尽如人意,法治之路仍很漫长。究其原因,是我国社会中长期缺乏自由、平等、安全的自然法价值。我们应在国民中培育这种自然法观念,培养良好的刑事法治环境。     

Responsible use of crop protection products and Nigeria's growth enhancement support scheme

This article examines the impact of the federal government of Nigeria's growth enhancement support scheme (GESS) on responsible use of crop protection products (CPPs) in rural Nigeria. Results from the logistic regressions show that GESS significantly impact on farmers’ access to CPPs but does not significantly impact on farmers’ knowledge and skill of CPP application, and that in several cases misuse has led to deterioration of soil fertility. Findings suggests that embracing information on recommended CPPs, dose rates, dilutions, timing, frequency of applications, and precautions should form the foundation of GESS activity on CPPs in sub-Saharan Africa.     

India 2025: the public distribution system and National Food Security Act 2013

The Government of India introduced the National Food Security Act (NFSA) 2013 to strengthen the public distribution system (PDS) in India. Extending the PDS service network is a contentious issue, especially for India’s rural regions. This article aims to estimate the level of expansion of the PDS network, additional food grain requirement, and increased storage facilities required to serve the growing population of India up to 2025. The statistical analysis highlights the need for significant changes in the PDS to meet NFSA, and the findings can aid policy-makers to design a more robust PDS.     

Understanding resource nationalism: economic dynamics and political institutions

Resource nationalism is on the rise around the globe. During the recent global resource boom, many governments have adopted nationalistic policies to maximise the political and economic benefits from their mining and energy sectors. Existing theories of resource nationalism rely upon economistic bargaining models, which fail to interrogate how political processes shape governments’ resource policy strategies. This article extends and develops these bargaining models by theorising the role of political institutions – specifically those found in rentier, developing and liberal market economies – in determining patterns of resource nationalism. A survey of 12 major resource-producing countries reveals that contemporary resource nationalism takes a range of distinct forms, which are connected to differences in political institutions that structure the objectives and policies of governments. It is therefore argued that while economic dynamics function as an enabling factor, political institutions are an equally important conditioning factor shaping the distinctive forms of resource nationalism observed today.     

Biofuels and inclusive development: the Brazilian experience

This article addresses the question of whether the production and use of biofuels could be appropriate to support productive inclusion. After an overview of the main drivers of biofuels development in the last decade, the article analyses the Brazilian experience, the most ambitious programme to promote inclusive development through biofuel policy. It focuses on the institutional settings and its distributional effects, as well as the organisational dynamics in a semi-arid region, and concludes that even in a country like Brazil, with a long and successful tradition in biofuel policies, the productive inclusion of small-scale family farmers faces severe difficulties.     

The roles of community seed banks in climate change adaption

Although community level seed-saving initiatives have been around for about 30 years, until recently they have received little attention in the scientific literature on climate change adaptation and plant genetic resources. Based on research experiences from various countries, this article argues that community seed banks can enhance the resilience of farmers, in particular of communities and households most affected by climate change. Community seed banks can secure improved access to, and availability of, diverse, locally adapted crops and varieties, and enhance related indigenous knowledge and skills in plant management, including seed selection, treatment, storage, multiplication, and distribution.     

Platforms for institutional change: assessing the potential of livelihood enhancement groups as community entry points in Zambia

To address the livelihood problems faced by the poor and vulnerable in Northern Province of Zambia, a novel collective action approach called livelihoods enhancement groups (LEGs) was used as a platform for facilitating research on development initiatives to generate change. Using focus group discussions and key informant interviews, this article assesses the potential of using the LEGs approach in generating change. The livelihood changes observed arose with the LEG as a platform through which different knowledge nodes interacted. Livelihood areas that LEGs affected included crop production, livestock production, nutrition, and access to credit.     

Microcredit and gender empowerment: policy implications for sustainable agricultural development in Eritrea

Sustainable agricultural development requires capital investment. However, farmers in Africa are constrained by inadequate access to microcredit. Therefore, this article examines the extent to which gender influences access to microcredit. The empirical results showed that women are less likely to be able to access microcredit, compared to men. The study also found that separate sets of factors including assets endowment, socio-economic, institutional, and technological factors significantly affected women’s and men’s access to microcredit. The article suggests that to promote sustainable agricultural development, gender differential should be critically considered in designing microcredit schemes that target farmers in Africa.     

The Institutional Dimension of the Entrepreneurship

This paper discusses the institutional dimension of the entrepreneurship. Besides providing products for the society, entrepreneurs silently influence the institution, which is perceptually invisible but actually exists with deep significance. Therefore, it is argued that a corporate may be destructive to institution even though it creates value for the society. This paper divides institution into three levels including organization, general rules and culture and interprets the reason why the “rational behaviors” of a entrepreneur may form a “prevalent atmosphere” deviating from the natural laws which may finally destroy the social institutional environment. In the end, it is believed in the paper that the social responsibility of entrepreneurs includes not only the commitment to public interest and environment protection etc., but also the efforts to consciously promote the institutional improvement.     

论新疆多元民族文化的多源生成与发展

新疆地处欧亚大陆的腹地,作为民族迁徙的走廊,多民族聚居杂处、共同发展,各民族文化在这里相互影响、相互渗透、相互交融,形成了新疆民族文化多源生成、多元并存与发展的文化体系,并体现出鲜明的民族特色。