The Big End of Town Meets the Local Council: The Investment Habitus of Four Sets of Australian Councils during the GFC

The Global Financial Crisis of 2008 led to a substantial write‐down in the value of investments such as collateralised debt obligations (CDOs) with one class of investors being NSW Local councils.  This article analyses interviews with four different investor types (or sets) of local councils, each of which took a substantially different approach to CDO investment. This categorisation into sets was based on interviews of 28 individuals working within 14 local councils as well as commentaries on legal cases involving a class action of local councils suing Lehman Brothers Australia as well as Grange Securities over losses in their investments. This article adopts Bourdieu's Theory of Practice to describe and explain behaviour regarding decisions to invest (or not) in CDOs. Interesting themes arise regarding differing views on the appropriate role of local councils, and on the degree and form of ‘capital’ (which includes knowledge, competencies, skills, and economic resources) that a council should have before investing in sophisticated financial products. This article explores the role that field, habitus, and capital played in moderating and influencing council investment making decisions. The analysis shows that these Bourdieuian concepts can be utilised to help explain individual behaviour. This case study shows that excessive capital left in the hands of individuals may result in suboptimal decision making. Local councils may need to consider ways of implementing policies and procedures that can be used to moderate individual action.     

State-owned enterprises,state capitalism and social distribution in Singapore

State-owned enterprises and sovereign wealth funds have ‘insured’ Singapore's domestic economy against financial crisis and restructuring interventions from multilateral institutions, engendered elite cohesion and political stability, binding middle class employees to the political system. This essay analyses paths by which the Singapore government established state-owned enterprises and transformed them into global enterprises. It also examines how sovereign wealth funds contribute to government social expenditure without increasing taxes. Such redistribution through state capitalism resonates with the People's Action Partys social democratic origins, inviting comparisons with contemporary developments in Chinese state-capitalism.     

Pyramid Structure,Political Connection and Over-investment:Based on the Empirical Study of the Private Listed Companies

Based of the observations of A-share private enterprises listed in Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges from 2007 to 2013, this paper investigates the impact and the transmission mechanism of political connections on the over-investment. In addition, this paper analyzes the positive role of pyramid structure in the setting of economic transformation, as an alternative mechanism of market. The results show that: over-investment do exist in private enterprises with political connections. The more political connections exist, the more serious the problem of over-investment becomes. But the pyramid structure can play a role of legal protection and reduce the government intervention, so that it can effectively restrict over-investment. This paper has some implications for correctly handling the relation of enterprise and government in the new era.     

A historian's view on the right to be forgotten

This essay explores the consequences for historians of the ‘right to be forgotten', a new concept proposed by the European Commission in 2012. I first explain that the right to be forgotten is a radical variant of the right to privacy and clarify the consequences of the concept for the historical study of public and private figures. I then treat the hard cases of spent and amnestied convictions and of internet archives. I further discuss the applicability of the right to be forgotten to dead persons as part of the problem of posthumous privacy, and finally point to the ambiguity of the impact of the passage of time. While I propose some compromise solutions, I also conclude that a generalized right to be forgotten would lead to the rewriting of history in ways that impoverish our insights not only into anecdotal lives but also into the larger trends of history.     

环境损害司法鉴定费制度的完善

环境损害司法鉴定在生态环境保护案件的审判中是关系责任认定和赔偿额度的关键证据。通过对最高人民法院发布的81件生态环境保护典型案例进行分析,结果发现司法鉴定机构收费不规范、不公开、价格虚高的现象普遍存在,高昂鉴定费已经成为当事人申请鉴定或者法院委托鉴定的难题。为破解该困境,环保部门、司法部门等相关部门应尽快从厘清鉴定费的性质入手,合理确立鉴定费负担原则,制定环境损害司法鉴定收费标准,同时建立健全环境损害司法鉴定评估资金保障机制,使环境损害鉴定评估真正成为环境保护与生态修复的助推器。     

Defense Spending and Economic Growth around the Globe: The Direct and Indirect Link

In this study, we combine both demand- and supply-side models to investigate the direct and indirect link between defense spending and economic growth. With data from 161 states for 1990–2012, we conduct a comprehensive examination of the defense-growth nexus in the post-Cold War world. Our findings suggest that at the global level, military spending significantly dampens private investment but somewhat reduces unemployment. However, the direct economic effects of defense spending on growth are minimal at best.     

Variation in Bilateral Investment Treaty Provisions and Foreign Direct Investment Flows to China, 1997–2011

This article examines the differentisal effects of specific provisions included in China’s bilateral investment treaties (BITs) in inducing foreign direct investment (FDI). Empirical analysis yields some evidence suggesting that while the signing of a BIT does not necessarily boost FDI, the entry into force of a BIT does exert a strong effect on investment flows. More importantly, we find substantial evidence that BITs with stronger investment protection provisions such as absolute and relative standards of treatment and dispute settlement procedures are more likely to induce greater FDI flows. These results suggest that the variation in the institutional design of bilateral investment treaties strongly influences FDI flows by shaping foreign investors’ expectations of their asset security and the overall stability of the host country investment environment.     

The emperor has no clothes: A systemic view of the status and future of child custody evaluation (CCE)

For all of the time, effort, and money invested in child custody evaluation (CCE) and for all of evaluators' emphases on collecting empirically sound data, CCE is not itself an empirically robust process. The reliability, validity, efficacy, and efficiency of CCE has never yet been adequately demonstrated. The science has yet even to define and measure the variables that constitute a healthy family, much less how one is to measure and recommend changes for conflicted systems in the midst of tectonic transitions. This article proposes five ways in which family law professionals and the culture at large should work to better serve the needs of our children: (1) the establishment of proactive parenting and co-parenting education intended to diminish the frequency and magnitude of family conflict and improve the quality of child and family functioning; (2) the introduction of organized incentives that motivate healthy parenting and co-parenting practices as opposed to negative consequences that do too-little, too-late; (3) a greater emphasis on social equity, cultural humility, and universal professional training; (4) the creation of ethical guidelines that disconnect continuing conflict from professional income; and (5) outcome research that feeds back into the evolution of these and related processes.     

浅论挪用公款罪的相关问题

"归个人使用"是挪用公款罪客观方面的一个必备要件。但是关于这一要件的内涵,在刑法理论界和实务界曾经存在过较大争议。虽然我国对挪用公款罪的规定较为明确,并针对某些具体问题作出了较为详细的解释,但由于现实情况的复杂性和立法的滞后性,在具体的司法实践中对法条和司法解释的使用和解释还是大有商榷余地的。在某些具体的案例中如果不进行严密的推理就极易在定罪上产生偏差,其结果就是相关法益得不到立法所期望的保护。     

评公法与私法区别的必要及其根据

公私法区别的必要及其根据是公私法关系问题的出发点与立论基础。美浓部达吉认为公法与私法区别的必要性在于二者区分的"法律效果",根据在于实定的国家法能够区分为"本来的国家法"与"第二次的国家法";但是他的论证逻辑似乎有倒果为因的嫌疑。美浓部达吉批判了凯尔森否认公私法区别之必要性的观点,但是实际上他对凯尔森的解读与批判并未切中凯尔森观点的要害,因而是不太确当的。公私法之区别只是一种类型化的思考问题的方式,二者"有必要区分但是没有绝对的标准"。