第三人胁迫略探

我国民法通则和合同法都未对第三人胁迫作出规定。文章比较了国外三种立法例,从是否应该保护善意相对人以及因第三人胁迫所为的民事行为的效力是无效行为还是可撤销行为这两方面进行了阐述,指出意思表示自由更值得保护。     

论债权质权中第三债务人的保护

文章以债权质权性质的确定为前提 ,以债权质权中第三债务人的存在为基础 ,针对我国法理与立法上忽略对债权质权中第三债务人保护的现状 ,以主要大陆法系国家立法为例 ,对我国立法进行了检讨。认为应在借鉴其他国家立法的基础上 ,对我国现行权利质权中的规定加以完善补充 ,使之适应经济生活的需要。     

台湾政党政治的腐败与政治转型

近二十年来,金钱政治以一种看似矛盾和不自觉的方式,破坏着台湾执政党和政府及官员的政治形象、权力结构和统治基础,以一种潜在的力量推动着它们的政党政治和政治体制由一元的模式向多元的模式变化,从而加快了多元政治的发展;同时,在巩固民主的过程中,它以一种瓦解体制的形式阻碍着民主制度的形成和稳定.进一步来说,这种腐败在政党政治和政治发展的不同阶段可以产生不同的作用,它或是在巩固政治转型阶段推动政治转型和民主化,或是在巩固民主的阶段推动或阻碍民主的发展,但其总的表现形式都是瓦解体制.     

信用证欺诈例外原则研究--从加拿大一起案例看我国司法实践中应注意的问题

为抑制信用证欺诈、维护诚实信用的国际贸易环境 ,信用证欺诈例外原则的运用需突破信用证的独立性 ,将信用证交易与基础合同交易联系起来考查。这是对信用证独立原则的例外。加拿大最高法院于 1 987年审结一起有关信用证欺诈例外原则的著名案例BankofNovaScodiaappellantv .Angelica -WhitewearLTD .andAngelicaCorpo rationRespondents,成功地总结了英美法国家处理信用证欺诈问题的立法、判例。本文从介绍该案入手 ,结合国际公约和现有立法、判例、法学理论 ,分析信用证欺诈例外原则确立的必要性及适用条件 ,以期为我国在新形势下完善有关信用证欺诈的立法、司法作理论上的探讨     

Age estimation and the developing third molar tooth: an analysis of an Australian population using computed tomography

The third molar tooth is one of the few anatomical sites available for age estimation of unknown age individuals in the late adolescent years. Computed tomography (CT) images were assessed in an Australian population aged from 15 to 25 years for development trends, particularly concerning age estimation at the child/adult transition point of 18 years. The CT images were also compared to conventional radiographs to assess the developmental scoring agreement between the two and it was found that agreement of Demirjian scores between the two imaging modalities was excellent. The relatively wide age ranges (mean ± 2SD) indicate that the third molar is not a precise tool for age estimation (age ranges of 3-8 years) but is, however, a useful tool for discriminating the adult/child transition age of 18 years. In the current study 100% of females and 96% of males with completed roots were over 18 years of age.     

社会转型时期执政党对司法的独特作用——以当前我国的能动司法实践为分析依据

无论是中国的司法体制改革还是司法能动的运用都不能忽视执政党的独特作用,＂司法独立＂并不是绝对的,尤其是在社会的转型时期。司法能动中执政党的独特作用主要表现为：执政党最可能把握国家当下的社会现实与社会演变的基本趋势,执政党最可能指明能动司法的基本要求与最佳境界,执政党的政策本身对法律具有一定的补充价值,党对司法能动的指导具有必要性、可行性与低成本性,实现综合效益的最大化等方面。执政党对司法的独特作用给予我们诸多启示,其中之一就是中国法院的政治功能,是一个值得关注的时代课题。     

I don't Agree with Nick: Retrodicting the Conservative–Liberal Democrat Coalition

Insider and journalistic accounts of the formation in May 2010 of the Conservative‐Liberal Democrat coalition actually, although not explicitly, rely on types of explanation familiar to those who study politics. They tell us that structure (or at least the economy) was important. So too, they suggest, were institutions (timing and the rules of the game). They also stress the importance of contingency (‘events, dear boy, events’) and agency (who did and said what to whom). While none of these things were unimportant, they only served to make certain an outcome that anyone with a passing acquaintance with the theory and the practice of coalition formation would have predicted—namely a ‘minimum winning coalition’. The only thing that could have made that outcome uncertain was a fundamental ideological difference between the two parties involved; however, it quickly became apparent—to the surprise of those of us who failed to appreciate how much the Liberal Democrats had changed—that no such difference existed. Indeed, it is possible to argue that the coalition formed was not merely minimum winning but ‘minimum connected winning’. As such, its formation was not so much breathtakingly bold and exciting as pretty much inevitable. In the end, the maths and the physics mattered more than the chemistry. Fortunately for the Conservatives, the Liberal Democrats seriously underplayed their hand in the negotiations, with possibly disastrous consequences for them in the long term.     

Scrutiny in English Local Government and the Role of Councillors

Overview and Scrutiny Committees were introduced in England and Wales in the Local Government Act 2000 that ended the role the full council and its committees as the locus of decision‐making for most local authorities. Overview and scrutiny committees composed of councillors not on small decision‐making executives were tasked with holding these to account. The performance of scrutiny committees is variable. Generally they work best where they concentrate on reviews of policy and practice, with recommendations following from well‐researched reports. The paper reviews the difficulties which arise when scrutiny committees endeavour to hold powerful executives to account, and suggests that to strengthen this new legislation is required, in particular to institutionalise scrutiny committees as agencies of the full council, the representative body for the area, comparable to the way in which the select committees at Westminster are the agencies of the Parliament.     

Bewitched—The Tea Party Movement: Ideas,Interests and Institutions

This article considers the development of the Tea Party movement, the character of its thinking and the nature of the interests and constituencies to which it is tied. The article suggests that despite the importance of ideas and interests, and the process of interaction between them, the movement has also been shaped and energised by institutional arrangements. In particular, it argues that there are significant numbers of independent or ‘detached’ conservatives and that the institutional architecture draws them towards political engagement but at the same time imposes constraints. The political friction that this creates has contributed to the anger that has characterised the movement. While the Tea Party movement may, as such, have only an ephemeral existence, independent conservatives are likely to remain a significant and potent constituency and will, within the institutional structures that define the American political process, give rise to other movements and protests.     

Coalition formation and polarisation

Party ideology plays an important role in determining which government coalitions form. Research on coalition formation tends to focus on the ideological distance between coalition parties. However, the distribution of preferences within the coalition, and the legislature, also has implications for which government coalition forms – that is, a party's willingness to join a coalition depends not only on its prospective coalition partners, but also on the alternative coalitions it could form. Several hypotheses about the effects of legislative polarisation are offered and tested using data on coalition formation in 17 parliamentary democracies in the postwar period. This article also demonstrates how the traditional measure of ideological divisions within coalitions fails to capture certain aspects of ideological heterogeneity within the cabinet (and the opposition) and how Esteban and Ray's polarisation index helps in addressing these deficiencies.