再论法学对哲学诠释学的继受

法学对哲学诠释学的继受,存在着解构与建构两种不同的理论路向。为此,须明确法律诠释学对哲学诠释学进行继受的可能与限度。立足于本体论与方法论相统一的解释学立场,在建构意义上将法学方法论纳入哲学诠释学的理论框架中,诠释学的任务不仅仅在于对法学方法论进行反思,更在于实现诠释学思维的方法论转化,创建法学作为人文科学的方法论。诠释学反思导向法律意义的追问,必然引起法律概念论从实体本体论向关系本体论的革新。     

个体主义方法论和我国法人制度

私法自治是民法的理念,决定了民法理论体系的构建和制度生成。民法的理念决定了民法理论体系的立场是个人主义。私法中所坚持的是个人主义立场,因此决定了个体主义方法论是民法的基本研究方法。自然人与法人是最重要的民事主体类型,是民事主体制度的重要内容。法人是一个组织,但其行为需要由法人机关实施,因此如何合理设计法人法律制度,促使法人内部团体意志有效形成并通过法人机关实现,与第三人实施法律行为参与法律交往,实现法人的利益,同时能够有效约束法人机关,防止其利用代表权谋取私利损害法人的利益,对促进民法体系的完善与成熟,意义重大。本文从个体主义方法论的视角对我国《民法通则》中有关法人人格、法人分类、法人机关等法律制度进行评析并提出完善建议。     

文化自觉的方法论问题初探

文化大发展大繁荣首先需要达到文化自觉。要达到文化自觉,贵在科学应用相关方法论;把握文化自觉内在物质实践规律,厘清文化自觉内在方法论的两大层次是科学应用相关方法论的前提和基础;实现文化价值,从文化自觉的理论方法论视野出发,不仅需要注重跨学科和跨文化的研究,而且需要辩证的思维与视野以及宏观研究与微观研究的有机结合。从文化自觉的实践方法论视野出发,既要坚持走出去与引进来并重原则,也要注重把握时代脉搏,增强中华文化辐射力,更要做到文化融合科技促进创新。     

习惯如何成为习惯法及其方法论意蕴——两种认可说的比较分析

习惯如何成为习惯法的问题必须从界定"习惯"、"习惯法"这对概念入手,而不同的定义将在很大程度上决定人们对该问题的态度或立场。社会认可说与国家认可说是人们在回答上述问题上的两种立场或学说,它们背后各自隐藏着一幅研究者据以解释经验事实的理想图景。其中国家认可说与文化研究中的"大传统"模式、制度研究中的"现代化"范式相互支持,极大地阻碍了习惯法研究。上述讨论启示我们,在习惯法研究中必须确立正确的方法论立场,才能比较客观地还原习惯法的本质和拓展习惯法研究的深度。     

Studying North Korea through North Korean migrants: lessons from the field

This article examines the use of North Korean defectors’ accounts as a source of information for studying the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). Information from defectors fills a vital knowledge gap and improves our understanding of North Korean politics, economics, and society. Witness accounts and interview data collected from people who were born in North Korea but have since left have been widely used by journalists, government agencies, international organizations, non-governmental organizations, and academics. There are, however, serious methodological issues in collecting, organizing, and interpreting information derived from defectors’ accounts. Selection and demographic biases, power relations between researchers and interviewees, monetary incentives, and language barriers are among those issues. We propose focus group discussions and participatory observation as complementary methods of data collection to mitigate the shortfalls of relying on individual interviews.     

Talking about radicalization

ABSTRACT

This article seeks to build a bridge between the criminological tradition of research on hard-to-reach groups and sensitive topics and the tradition of critical research on radicalization. As a result of the hard-to-reach character of so-called radicals themselves, the article analyzes interview experiences with ‘professionals’ working within the prevention of radicalization and other actors. This article discusses the experiences connected to the preparation and unfolding of the interviews on the sensitive topic of radicalization and illustrates how interviews and questions designed to gather knowledge about radicalization processes among Muslims in Denmark often became a discussion about the concept of radicalization itself. This article shows that making use of the concept of radicalization is problematic in interviews as it is embedded in the Danish political discourse on immigration, Muslims and Islam. This article reflects on researcher positionality and how being a white ethnic Danish researcher might have caused an underestimation of how problematic the concept is to people directly involved with it, and that speaking from such a researcher positionality also can make the concept of radicalization seem even more problematic.     

‘Monsters don’t bother me anymore’ forensic mental health service users’ experiences of acceptance and commitment therapy for psychosis

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for psychosis (ACTp) is an approach that aims to change the relationship an individual with psychosis has with difficult thoughts, emotions and experiences. It promotes the use of acceptance, defusion, mindfulness and focussing on valued outcomes as opposed to struggling with psychotic experiences. This service evaluation project explored service users’ experiences and meanings of ACTp within a medium secure mental health service. Thematic analysis was used to analyse interviews with 10 male service users. Four main themes emerged from the data: ‘Recovery’, ‘Insight’, ‘Developing Skills’ and ‘Accessibility’. Overall, service users viewed their experience of ACTp positively and identified encouraging therapeutic outcomes. These findings suggest that ACTp is an approach that should be considered a therapeutic option within forensic mental health contexts. These outcomes were compared with previous research findings. Limitations of the study, clinical implications and ideas for future research have been discussed.     

Normative behaviourism as a solution to four problems in realism and non-ideal theory

ABSTRACT

This article advances the case for ‘normative behaviourism’ – a new way of doing political philosophy that tries to turn facts about observable patterns of behaviour, as produced by different political systems, into grounds for specific political principles. This approach is applied to four distinct problems at the heart of the ideal/non-ideal theory and moralism/realism debates: (1) How to distinguish good from bad idealisations; (2) how to rank options of variable feasibility, cost, and danger; (3) how to distinguish legitimate acceptance of a given political system from acceptance based on coercion or false consciousness; and (4) how to translate abstract principles into concrete institutions. Objections against the general viability of normative behaviourism, and against the types of behaviour it tracks, are also considered.     

Colliding intervention in the spatial management of street-based injecting and drug-related litter within settings of public convenience (UK)

This paper considers the structural production and amplification of tensions surrounding the issue of street-based injecting drug use and drug-related litter (injecting paraphernalia) discarded in public settings. These tensions, it is argued, is a consequence of colliding intervention (policy and practice) brought about by conflicting connections between national/local drug strategy and micro-level forms of governance regarding the spatial management of public space. These colliding interventions have negative consequences upon harm reduction and the formation of enabling environments. The paper draws upon data obtained from a five-year (multi-site) ethnographic study of street-based injecting conducted throughout the south of England during 2006–2011.     

Substate variations in political values in Canada

The article aims to make three methodological and substantive contributions to the literature on substate cleavages in political values. Considerable controversy characterizes this literature. The paper argues that this controversy is due to how indicators representing political values are chosen and constructed. The paper proposes to use factor analysis to select and construct indicators of political values. The analysis identifies five dimensions, which collectively account for 57% of Canadians’ political values. They include support for moral traditionalism, egalitarianism, pluralism, openness to immigration and personal responsibility. Second, the paper shows that there is only limited variation across provinces in political values. Third, the paper shows that this result holds when considering regional variations rather than provincial variations.