行政听证制度之法理思考

行政听证制度是行政程序法的重要组成部分。作者从听证制度的概念比较分析入手,探讨了行政听证制度的法理基础,阐述了行政听证制度与行政法治化、民主行政和行政效率之间的关系,从法理层面上揭示了听证制度存在的价值,以期对我国行政听证立法做些理性思考。     

WTO与中国税收立法的改革

1994年,我国进行了一次深刻的税收法制改革,从此以后一个新的税法体系开始运转,并在一段时期内对我国经济和社会的发展进程起到了积极的作用。然而,1994年税制改革仅仅只是朝着重构我国税法体系这个漫长的道路上迈出了最初的一步。为了与我国经济体制转型和政府财政行政管理方式变革齐步并进,适应我国加入WTO的需要,我国迫切需要进行新一轮的税法体系的改革来调整市场经济的发展。本文针对我国税收立法存在的问题,试图提出改革的建议。     

抵押与质押之区分及中国物权法的选择

关于抵押与质押之区分 ,大陆法系主要有三种立法例。我国对抵押与质押关系的处理经历了由《民法通则》的“质”“押”合一到《担保法》的“质”“押”分立的变迁。《担保法》中采取多元化的标准区分抵押与质押 ,担保标的不同 ,抵押与质押的区分标准也各不相同 ,这就造成了若干理论上的困惑和一些实践中的不便。为此 ,有必要以民法典的编撰和物权法的制定为契机 ,对抵押与质押的区分进行重新思考和抉择 ,选取占有方式作为二者区分的标准     

CBS在脑挫伤后损伤时间推断中的作用

目的观察胱硫醚β合成酶(cystathionineβ-synthase,CBS)在脑挫伤后皮质中不同时段的表达变化。方法利用改良的自由落体装置建立小鼠脑挫伤模型,通过Western印记法和免疫组织化学方法检测不同时间点(1 h、6 h、12 h、1 d、2 d、3 d、7 d)损伤区周围皮质CBS的表达变化。结果 Western印迹法显示,CBS在脑损伤后皮质中的表达下调,在损伤3 d时降到最低,于损伤7 d恢复到正常水平。免疫组织化学结果显示,CBS在正常皮质中有表达,损伤后表达逐渐减弱,损伤3 d后阳性表达明显减少,7 d恢复到正常水平。结论 CBS有望成为法医学推断脑挫伤后损伤经过时间的参考指标。     

电子商务对国际税法的挑战

网络促进了全球化电子商务的迅速发展。电子商务的出现,无疑为人们提供了新的商贸空间和商机,但它所引发的税收问题也是不容忽视的。电子商务的新特点使税收的传统控管手段失灵。我国应建立新的税收征管体制,以应对电子商务带来的新挑战。     

Policy Adoption and Policy Intensity: Emergence of Climate Adaptation Planning in U.S. States

The United States is experiencing growing impacts of climate change but currently receives a limited policy response from its national leadership. Within this policy void, many state governments are stepping up and taking action on adaptation planning. Yet we know little about why some states adopt State Adaptation Plans (SAPs), while others do not. This article investigates factors that predict the emergence of SAPs, both in terms of policy adoption and policy intensity (goal ambitiousness). Applying the diffusion of innovation theory, I consider the relative influence of internal state characteristics, regional pressures, and test for conditional effects between government ideologies and severity of the problem. The results show interesting differences between predictors that influence policy adoption and ambitiousness. States are more motivated to adopt a policy when faced with greater climate vulnerability, have more liberal citizenry, and where governments have crossed policy hurdles by previously passing mitigation plans. The intensity of policies and goal setting, moreover, is more likely to be driven by interest group politics and diffuse through policy learning or sharing information among neighboring states in Environmental Protection Agency regions. These findings support an emerging scholarship that uses more complex dependent variables in policy analysis. These variables have the potential to differentiate symbolic from substantive policies and capture finer information about predictors of importance.     

Political Candidates and the Energy Issue: Nuclear Power Position and Electoral Success

Members of parliament are key actors for the implementation of energy transitions, such as phasing out nuclear power. Before legislators can cast their maybe decisive vote in parliament, they need to run for office and actively strive for election. This paper assesses what political candidates oppose renewable energy transitions and questions whether the energy issue matters in national elections, and thus has consequences for the implementation of new sustainable energy sources. We analyze these questions by first describing the specific characteristics of political candidates. The paper then evaluates the relevance of the energy issue for electoral success in three national elections in Switzerland (2007, 2012, and 2015). Based on candidate data from the voting advice application smartvote.ch, we find that female candidates support ETs more than men do; that especially the French‐speaking part of the country is more in favor of a nuclear phase‐out, and that younger candidates are also more open toward restructuring the energy system than older candidates are. Our models further show that the energy issue does not matter in elections, independently from its salience in the respective election campaigns. Candidates are thus relatively free to choose their position on the issue and do not have to fear consequences at the ballot. However, candidates of center parties, in contrast to the pole parties, are sensitive to the energy issue and reflect public mood in their positions.     

Making a Place for Alternative Technologies: The Case of Agricultural Bio‐Inputs in Argentina

This article characterizes the ways in which the actors in charge of designing and implementing public policies intervene to promote the emergence of alternatives to problematic technologies. It is based on a case study conducted in Argentina that focuses on initiatives to promote the development of biological agricultural inputs in the context of increasingly controversial chemical inputs. The study spotlights the political, institutional, and semantic efforts made by policy makers and public administrations to ensure these new inputs find their way into organizations and onto their agendas. Their work consists in attenuating the boundaries between chemical and biological inputs, and reducing opposition by creating categories and organizations that downplay potential dissension and highlight the possible coexistence of technological paradigms. Contrary to what the injunctions of technological substitution suggest, we show that putting alternative technologies on the public agenda depends largely on their inclusion in institutional and regulatory infrastructures originally designed for technologies that are likely to decline. More broadly, it relies on the construction of continuity between the two types of technologies.     

A 21st Century Low‐Carbon Transition in U.S. Electric Power: Extent,Contributing Factors,and Implications

The U.S. electric power sector has experienced a substantial shift of the generation mix since the turn of the century, moving from heavy reliance on coal‐powered generation to one drawing more from natural gas and, more recently, renewables. This transition has been forged by a mix of macroeconomic factors (recession and recovery); technological breakthroughs (horizontal drilling coupled with hydraulic fracturing; improvements in natural gas plant efficiency); clean energy policies at federal, state, and local levels of government; and private sector demands for carbon‐free energy sources. These factors have combined to reduce carbon emissions from electric power generation substantially this century. In this article we examine the extent of this transition, its causes, as well as the distinct American institutional factors steering it, including energy and environmental federalism, electoral politics, and the political economy of clean energy policy enactment and resistance.     

Why are public offices sold in Kyrgyzstan?

Why are public offices for sale in Kyrgyzstan? To address this question, this article attempts to set out a new logic for understanding the motives, nature, and consequences of corruption in the country. Rather than securing access to a single favor through bribery, officials invest in political and administrative posts in order to obtain access to stream of rents associated with an office. Political and administrative corruption is organically linked in this system, and corruption stems not so much from weak monitoring as from being a franchise-like arrangement, where officials are required to pay continuous “fees” to their bosses. The key is to be the public official influencing the redistribution of rents as well as participating in the informal market where “public” goods are privatized and exchanged for informal payments. Thus, instead of control over the pure economic assets of the state, influence over the state's institutional and organizational framework is the dominant strategy for earning and investing in the country.