Reconciliation Arguments in John Rawls’s Political Philosophy

Abstract

Recently debates about the worth of “ideal theory” have directed attention to the functions that an account of a perfectly just society can serve. One function is that of “reconciliation”: learning that a seemingly undesirable feature of the social world would exist even in the perfectly just society can show us the value that it has in the present as well. John Rawls has emphasized reconciliation as among the roles of political philosophy. For instance, Rawls claims that his theory of justice can reconcile us to the pluralism of liberal democracies. In this essay, I argue that Rawls’s political theory also can reconcile the inhabitants of liberal democratic societies to the fact that such societies may be cognitively confusing on account of their complexity. Then I contend that Rawls’s work offers valuable theoretical resources for analysing a society’s transparency or lack thereof.     

性别·叙事性·语言学视角:露斯·佩奇的女性主义叙事理论评析

20世纪90年代以降,以北美为主导的女性主义叙事学得到了长足的发展,无论是在叙事理论建构还是在叙事批评实践上均取得了引人瞩目的成果.本文主要从性别、叙事性、研究方法以及研究课题等层面出发,评析英国学者露斯·佩奇的女性主义叙事理论.文章指出,一方面,佩奇采用文学与语言学的双重视角,对女性主义叙事学的发展做出了重要贡献;但另一方面,佩奇关于叙事形式可以脱离性别的论点又偏离了女性主义叙事学研究的主流.     

论审查起诉阶段刑事和解模式的构建

2013年1月1日生效的新《刑事诉讼法》在特殊程序一章中,首次确立了当事人和解的公诉案件诉讼程序,这标志着运行多年的刑事和解制度在立法上获得了确认。审查起诉阶段的刑事和解是刑事和解制度的重要组成部分,也是检察权运行的重要载体。基于对该阶段检察机关作用的实践考察,刑事和解实践模式可分为检察机关参与模式和主导模式。通过对这两种实践模式的理论分析,指出未来审查起诉阶段刑事和解应当以能动监督模式作为发展方向。     

Somaliland's post-war reconstruction: Rubble to rebuilding

ABSTRACT

This study captures the momentum of Somaliland's national reconciliation nationstate-rebuilding phase as it drives a reconstruction process involving the demobilisation of militias; internal state institutional reconstruction focusing on the House of Elders and the House of Representatives; the international dimensions of reconstruction involving humanitarian aid and developmental assistance; private reconstruction initiatives interacting with the development of a monetary exchange process and the participation of the Somaliland diaspora; and the role of women as the backbone of the Somaliland economy, and how all of these social components of nation-state building are framed constitutionally in the crafting of a multi-party democracy with northern Somali characteristics. However, the broader context in which these reconstructive dynamics unfold is conditioned by the emergence of militant expressions of political Islam within and outside the Somali coast in and around the Red Sea ‘Afrabian’ transregion and the Persian Gulf.     

论刑事和解对刑罚功能发挥的影响——基于双重预防的反思

刑事和解对刑罚功能发挥的影响一直是引人关注的话题,新（《刑事诉讼法》对于刑事和解程序的相关规定一定程度上缓解了两者之间的紧张关系,但是在剥夺犯罪人再犯能力、完善个别威慑实际效果、降低改造难度、提高一般鉴别等刑罚具体功能的发挥上,刑事和解的消极影响仍然存在,努力将这些消极影响控制在合理范围之内将是刑事和解实践中的重点工作。     

关于死刑案件中刑事和解的探讨

刑事和解在司法实践中的适用虽已初步形成思路,但在具体适用范围上尤其是在死刑案件能否适用刑事和解方面仍尚无定论,以致其在司法界的大胆尝试和学界的谨慎保留中处于尴尬境地.现阶段,死刑案件适用刑事和解纵然有其合理之处,然其终究难以避免与公权力的权威、公平正义和平等观念之间的冲突.笔者认为,死刑案件中被告人与被害人之间的和解并不符合刑事和解的本义,其实为国家救济制度建立之前的一种迫不得已的救济措施.因此,刑事和解不应延伸适用到死刑等重罪案件领域,国家应尽快建立国家救济制度以代替刑事和解在死刑案件中对被害人及其亲属的救助作用.     

Afghanistan: transitional justice in the midst of war

In Afghanistan, there has been much talk about, and international support for dealing with past injustices by developing transitional justice mechanisms. Reconciliation is being promoted as a nation-building strategy. This article argues that the implementation of transitional justice poses several challenges. First, a significant component of such a strategy is based on reconciliation taking place internally among competing armed groups and ethnic identities with the goal of transforming Afghan society. This assumes the cause of past conflicts to be internal and along ethnic divisions which limits the accountability for war crimes. It also considers violence and crimes of war as a thing of the past, ignoring the present situation. Furthermore, given the ongoing war between the US-led forces and the Taliban, insecurity and escalating levels of violence one has to question whether transitional justice can take place during a war. This article concludes that transitional justice is interconnected to perceptions of security and stability. The analysis of the present situation in Afghanistan poses critical questions as to whether memories of victims can be considered as the past in the midst of war.     

Testing for linguistic injustice: territoriality and pluralism

This article develops a linguistic injustice test. Language policy measures passing the test conflict with the normative ideal of equal language recognition. The first part of the test checks for external restrictions – language policies that grant more recognition to one language group than to another. The second part of the test checks for internal restrictions – language policies that grant more recognition to some members of a language group than to other members of the same group. The article then applies the linguistic injustice test to two models of linguistic justice: linguistic territoriality and linguistic pluralism. It is argued that real-life cases of linguistic territoriality tend to pass the test. It is argued that instantiations of linguistic pluralism tend to fail the test.     

From a ‘terrorist’ to global icon: a critical decolonial ethical tribute to Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela of South Africa

This article examines Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela’s political life and legacy from the perspective of critical decolonial liberation ethics, which privileges a paradigm of peace, humanism and racial harmony and opposes the imperial/colonial/apartheid paradigm of war, racial hatred and separation of races. This system emerged in the 15th century and was driven by the desire to conquer, dispossess, colonise, exploit and segregate people according to race and, alongside imperatives of primitive accumulation, it informed the colonisation of South Africa and the imposition of apartheid. Mandela was a liberation fighter who provided an antidote to the colonial ideology of racial profiling and hierarchisation. What distinguished him from other freedom fighters was his commitment to the cause of human rights as early as the 1960s, long before it attained its status as a constitutive part of global normative order. When Mandela became the first black president of a democratic South Africa, his practical and symbolic overtures to whites and his reconciliatory politics aimed to call them back to a new inclusive humanity. Critical decolonial ethics logically enables a tribute to Mandela that privileges his commitment to a post-racial society and new humanism.     

汉语字母词存在的合理性

《现代汉语字典》收录西文字母词在学界引起激烈争论。正方的观点是服务性是字典的一个主要功能,通过借形译法字母词已成为汉字的一部分。反方的观点是字典收录西文字母词将严重影响汉字的纯洁性和民族性。本文从概念、范畴、范围、层次、等级、程度和动态等维度以及它们之间的密切关系着眼,从《现代汉语字典》收录字母词的合理性、语言经济原则、汉字的纯洁性和民族性等方面,论证汉语字母词存在的合理性。