检察机关与侦查、审判机关配合制约机制的现状分析及完善

在我国刑事诉讼制度中,检察机关与侦查机关之间主要围绕侦查分工和追诉目标形成相应的配合制约机制;检察机关与审判机关之间则围绕查清犯罪事实和管辖程序展开配合、围绕裁判和审理程序展开制约。检察机关主要通过通知立案、通知撤案、不捕、不诉、追捕、追诉、纠正违法等方式对侦查机关进行制约,侦查机关则通过对不捕、不诉决定的复议、复核等方式对检察机关进行制约;检察机关主要通过抗诉和纠正违法对审判机关进行制约,审判机关则通过无罪判决、改变指控等对检察机关进行制约。在司法实践中,检察机关还通过侦诉协作、附条件逮捕、建议撤案和地方政法委协调等方式与侦查机关和审判机关进行配合。总体而言,在检察机关与侦查、审判机关之间的配合制约体系中还存在制约范围不全面、制约手段有限、制约结构不稳定、配合机制缺乏约束力、配合范围不明确、考核评价机制不协调等问题。对此,应当分别加以解决和完善。     

Professionalism,Responsiveness, and Representation: What do They Mean for City Managers?

The literature in public administration advances three important values for public administrators. In their roles as technical experts, public administrators are professionals whose decisions are guided by the norms and principles of the public administration profession. In their roles as appointed officials, public administrators are expected to be responsive to their elected superiors. As representatives of the community, they are expected to voice the concerns and demands of citizens. Professionalism, responsiveness, and representation all are considered fundamental values that must be reflected in administrative decisions and actions. Despite the importance of these three values for public administration, insufficient empirical research has been done to examine what these values mean for public administrators. That is, the critical question that remains unanswered is: “What activities of public administrators are associated with these three values?” Based on a nationwide survey of city managers, this article identifies critical activities in which public administrators get involved, then reduces these activities into factors (dimensions), and finally examines the correlation of these factors with attitudes of city managers towards professionalism, responsiveness, and representation. The findings of this research help make these three values more concrete by associating them with major policy and political activities of city managers.     

Visegrad: Fit for purpose?

Visegrad inter-state cooperation among the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia has faced numerous near-death experiences since its official birth in 1991. Furthermore, it has faced two challenges since the four member-countries’ accession to the EU in 2004. Then Visegrad was eulogized, considered deceased by many precisely for having achieved the apparently ultimate aim of EU membership. Second, having purposefully stated rumours of its death, Visegrad has since 2008 been confronted by issues from outside and ones well beyond its size – the Obama presidency and its apparent abandonment of Central and Eastern Europe in its “reset” strategy towards Moscow; a post-Lisbon EU agenda; strategic reorientations in NATO; and both the general, that is, global, financial crisis and particularly within the EU and regarding the Euro.This article, by contrast, contends that the fundamental changes and challenges that Visegrad has faced enhanced the Group's clear and successful strategy. It identifies and elaborates that strategy, drawing also selectively and thematically on the Group's historical experience since 1991. These strategies include targeted rather than broad selection of aims; retaining an exclusive membership while also inventing variable and flexible mechanisms for adding non-member countries to help them pursue specific initiatives. Through a study of annual Group Presidency agendas and reports, high-level and ministerial meeting declarations and media and secondary source analysis and interviews with National Coordinators, the article contends that the Group continues to promote realistic aims, and provides a unique platform for exercising them. This study concludes that Visegrad, despite the outside challenges remains effective in raising awareness, advancing smaller-scale policies and influencing EU policy towards the Western Balkans and European Partnership (EaP) countries, as well as achieving specific Visegrad initiatives with those states.     

Regional security cooperation reinvented: Western Balkans counterterrorism initiative

ABSTRACT

This article argues that the Western Balkans Counterterrorism Initiative (WBCTi), originally a Slovenian proposal of late 2014, represents an efficient form of regional security cooperation, particularly when regional EU integration is considered. The Initiative that was accepted by the Justice and Home Affairs Council of the EU in late 2015 is the first of its kind. It is aimed at both incorporating and integrating all forms of international assistance that concern increasing the capacity to prevent and combat terrorism, violent extremism, and radicalisation leading to terrorism. Additionally, it is directed at decreasing duplication of actions by international actors and raising levels of efficiency of security cooperation and reform. This article analyses the Initiative by focusing on its structure and claiming that its specific framework represents an innovative approach establishing a fully functional regional structure outlining EU-Western Balkans security cooperation.     

Taking production relations seriously: the role of defence firms in armaments cooperation

ABSTRACT

Coordinating defence-industrial relations towards harmonising and facilitating procurement policies, production processes and the joint operability of their member-states’ national defence sectors, International Armaments Organisations (IAOs) play an important role in armaments cooperation. How can we explain their institutional development? Existing literature tackles this question using International Relations theories to mid-range theories of institutions and integration. However, they adopt overly state-centric viewpoints, assume actor interests as given, and disregard the changes in the global economic landscape that constitute the backdrop of armaments cooperation. In response, we shift the focus onto a key group of actors: the defence firms. Using a Neo-Gramscian Historical Materialist approach, we investigate how the globalisation of the defence market has created a transnational defence-industrial class in Europe, and demonstrate how its economic interests have fundamentally shaped the institutional frameworks of European IAOs. We focus on the Organisation for Joint Armaments Cooperation (OCCAR) and the European Defence Agency (EDA) to illustrate our argument. Our conclusions have implications for the study of armaments cooperation, particularly highlighting how the economic nature of this policy domain necessitates a closer look at the global and regional production relations, and the agency of the defence firms.     

Understanding the workings of interstate cooperation in defence: an exploration into Franco-British cooperation after the signing of the Lancaster House Treaty

Cooperation occurs more often than conflict in the international system. However, its practicalities have been little conceptualised in International Relations. Through an empirical study of the workings of contemporary Franco-British cooperation in defence, this article offers a multidimensional analysis of interstate cooperation taking into account organisational, political, material and cognitive factors. By studying their centripetal and centrifugal effects, this article shows why each factor is relevant for understanding what favours and impedes the emergence and continuation of intergovernmental cooperation. It notably demonstrates how domestic interorganisational dynamics have an impact on relations with foreign partners. This article also shows how bridging the traditional divide between approaches based on interests and approaches based on beliefs allows us to identify the evolutionary dynamic of cooperation.     

论没收国际合作中的资产返还问题

资产返还是没收国际合作领域中对没收资产进行处置的方式之一,其依据在于联合国两大公约,即2001年的《联合国打击有组织犯罪公约》和2003年的《联合国反腐败公约》。资产返还主要是基于两种原因：基于合法所有权的返还和基于赔偿性质的返还。事实上,被请求国在返还资产时可以考虑执行没收的费用,还可以考虑基于特殊用途的其他方式。     

Review of “Youth Peacebuilding: Music,Gender, and Change,” by Lesley J. Pruitt

Ten countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean region joined the European Union in 2004. Two more new members from southeast Europe (Bulgaria and Romania) joined in January 2007. Given the diverse range of political, economic, social, and cultural contexts of these nations, EU enlargement and integration processes have entered a new phase of complexity. In this article, I analyze the cultural policy developments in eight of the new EU member states (the Czech Republic, Estonia, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Slovakia, and Slovenia), examine in detail state and nonstate cultural funding patterns, and assess the influence of EU policy—especially with regard to the Culture Program, Structural Funds, and European cultural cooperation initiatives—for its impact on cultural policy development in the new member states. Next, I discuss the new forms of pan-European cultural cooperation, focusing on the development of networks, foundation initiatives, and observatories. Finally, I explore issues in development of cultural policy in the new member states and conclude with recommendations for the future of the enlarged EU.     

The Creation and Transformation of Regional Parliamentary Assemblies: Lessons from the Pan-African Parliament

This article analyses the genesis and recent evolution of the Pan-African Parliament (PAP), one of the key institutions of African integration. Based on theories relating to the European Parliament, it argues that the dynamics surrounding the establishment of the PAP result from a blend of internal and external factors. On the one hand, the decision to create a PAP can be traced back to the problems of the Organisation of African Unity and to the will of African leaders to revive Pan-Africanism. On the other hand, the establishment and design of the PAP are partially inspired by international precedents such as the European Parliament. Over and above this observation, which is informed by the theory of mimetic institutionalism, the existence of regular interactions between Europe and Africa and, more generally, the outward activities of the PAP, would seem propitious to the self-assertion of this institution. Ultimately, the objective of the article is to lay the ground for a more ambitious theory of regional parliamentary assemblies.     

Seeking CSDP Accountability Through Interparliamentary Scrutiny

The EU's Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) requires parliamentary accountability. At present, as CSDP-related decisions are increasingly taken in the framework of the UN or the EU, neither the European Parliament (EP) nor national parliaments are able to hold decision-makers accountable. Interparliamentary cooperation can provide added value in bringing about parliamentary scrutiny of CSDP. Nevertheless, despite an official agreement, the EP and national parliaments have different views on what such interparliamentary cooperation entails. There are five conditions – cooperation and complementarity among parliaments, conferential dialogues, coordinated agendas, and comprehensive and comparative scrutiny – that have to be fulfilled to create added value for interparliamentary cooperation on CSDP matters.