Globalisation before the crash: the City of London and UK economic strategy

The global financial crisis provides an opportune moment to analyse the rise of the City of London financial markets, their role in the globalisation process and an attempt by the Labour Party Left in the 1970s to challenge emerging transnational forces. The USA became the world's ‘hegemon’ after the Second World War, but London retained its power in finance; well placed to challenge the post-war Keynesian regulatory consensus in favour of globalising interests, theoretically and politically served by the rise of neo-liberal ideology. In response the Labour Party Left devised its radical ‘Programme 1973’ and subsequently the Alternative Economic Strategy, which in seeking to defend social democracy, understood the necessity to prevent the erosion of national financial controls. The 1976 International Monetary Fund crisis was a defining moment in this battle. This article includes interviews with key contemporary actors and is based in the discipline of International Political Economy.     

EU police and judicial cooperation before the Treaty of Lisbon: strengthening of the weakest link?

Abstract

Three key questions arise from the encroachment of the European Union (EU) on national prerogatives in the administration of justice: What factors contribute to the weakest link collective action problem attending police and judicial cooperation within the EU? What were the substantive and institutional goals of the EU in this policy domain? What accounts for the rising level of police and judicial cooperation despite the persistence of barriers to cooperation and incentives to defect? This article first establishes the fundamental incentives and obstacles to cooperation in matters of transnational security threats in post-Westphalian Europe. It then proceeds to explore the evolution of police and judicial cooperation in Justice and Home Affairs between 1999 and 2009, to assess national contributions to police and judicial cooperation, and to consider the potential impact that the changes introduced by the Lisbon Treaty, Stockholm Programme and European Investigation Order. A final question is considered in the conclusion: Did the level and extent of police and judicial cooperation that emerged between 1999 and 2009 give rise to a community of practice that in turn fostered a nascent community of identity resilient enough to mitigate the weakest link technology of public goods production endemic to this policy domain?     

Introduction to Neumann: law and socialist political theory

Abstract

Regulators attempt to understand financial markets and their risks in terms of categories of knowledge and datasets that are defined and produced by the markets. However, regulators cannot adequately interpret or utilize such knowledge, for reasons including their social distance from the sites of knowledge production, the diversity of financial firms’ proprietary risk models, firms’ abilities to game the rules thus rendering the ‘metrics’ meaningless and several backfiring aspects of global regulatory networking and reform. Calls for yet more information about trading, posed in terms of the merits of transparency, result in information swamping of regulators. Meanwhile, while policy-makers tinker with regulatory structures (‘architecture’), political reaction to the crisis de-legitimizes public regulation as a project. Yet there is one positive aspect of the reforms – enhancing powers for ‘resolution’ of financial firms in ways that impact upon investors while minimizing wider destabilization – upon which the regulatory information requirement can and should be refocused. To protect the public interest, legal transparency is required, trading transparency is not. This paper introduces these issues by drawing on critical work on transparency and markets.     

The Impact of the 1994 Federal Assault Weapons Ban on Gun Markets: An Assessment of Short-Term Primary and Secondary Market Effects

The reactions of the gun market, including those of producers, wholesalers, retailers, and consumers, play an important role in shaping the potential impact of gun control policies on gun crime. As a case in point, this paper examines the federal Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, which bans a group of military-style semiautomatic firearms (i.e., assault weapons). Using a variety of national and local data sources, we assess the short-term (1994–1996) impact of the assault weapons ban on gun markets, examining trends in prices and production of the banned weapons in legal markets and assessing the availability of the banned weapons in illicit markets as measured by criminal use. Prices of assault weapons rose substantially around the time of the ban's enactment, reducing the availability of assault weapons to criminal users in the very short run. However, a surge in assault weapon production just before the ban caused prices to fall in the months following the ban. Implications of the findings for assessing this and other gun control policies are discussed.     

论铁路货盗案件的特点及侦查对策

铁路运输货物被盗窃(以下简称铁路货盗)是铁路上的多发案件,直接侵害广大货主的财产安全,不仅给铁路企业造成了非常大的经济损失,而且损害了铁路企业的声誉,有时甚至对国家的军事、科技、外交等产生重要影响。铁路货盗案件的主要特点:(一)犯罪人员的多元性与团伙化;(二)作案时间的选择性与连续性;(三)作案地点的特定性与区域性;(四)犯罪手法的专业化与智能化;(五)犯罪的危害大,关联性强;(六)隐案多,取证难。铁路货盗案件侦查的主要对策,是在认真进行现场勘查的基础上,通过分析案情,划定侦查方向,因情施策。铁路货盗案件的主要侦查措施:(一)追击堵截;(二)控制赃物;(三)检索犯罪情报资料;(四)摸底排队;(五)巡查守候;(六)使用秘密力量;(七)破案战役。     

我国政策性银行运作模式比较及改革探析

政策性银行的金融服务作为准公益物品,具有公与私物品的两种特性,这决定了政策性银行的运作模式必须是政府与市场的有机结合.由于经营理念、运作模式等方面的差别,经过多年的发展,我国政策性银行之间出现了较大的绩效差异.为提升我国政策性银行的运作绩效,我们须从制度完善、政银分离、治理网络和竞争合作四个方面探索有效的改革路径.     

公共产品分享权利及其法律保障

基于国家提供公共产品的目的,公共产品的分享最终可归结为满足公民的生存需要和发展需要,并以此界分出生存性权利与发展性权利。由于需求主体与供给主体的特殊结构,公共产品分享权利与传统意义上的法律权利相比,体现为一种非对称的权利义务关系,其可诉性较弱,司法诉讼并非其权利保障的唯一路径,议案、听证、信访等制度对于公共产品分享权利的保障同样具有现实意义。     

我国制度性产品供给体制及其改革

本文首先探讨规则产品、执行产品和制度产品的概念。然后 ,从制度产品及其供给体制的角度 ,以制度产品概念和制度的现代定义为基础 ,分析我国当前突出的社会问题 ,指出其背后的本质根源是制度产品劣质化。其次讨论了我国制度产品劣质化的成因和背景 ,并且指出解决制度产品劣质化问题的紧迫性。最后指出我国制度产品供给体制的主要弊端是生产人员垄断性。打破生产人员的垄断地位 ,恢复公众选择和监督生产人员的权力 ,实现公众对制度产品产生过程的知情权、监督权和参与意见权是制度产品供给体制改革的方向。     

浅析侵占罪行为对象由的遗忘物和埋藏物

自97刑法设立侵占罪以来,理论界对该罪的行为对象问题一直争论不休,尤其是对遗忘物和埋藏物的理解,更是观点不一,本文借助民法中的相关概念和理论,对作为侵占罪行为对象的遗忘物和埋藏物进行了分析,并得出了自己的结论,认为本罪中所指的遗忘物与遗失物同义,二者的共同本质在于都是财物所有人非出于本意而丧失了控制的财物;而本罪中所指的埋藏物应指发现之时所有人明确的财物.