Oversight Effectiveness and Political Will: Some Lessons from West Africa

The purpose of the present note is to advance two theoretical claims. The first claim proposed is that the impact of the availability of oversight tools and of the most broadly understood legislative capacity (availability of material, technical, financial resources; availability of well-trained staff) on the effectiveness with which legislative oversight is performed is conditional. The second claim put forward, after reviewing a rich body of work on executive–legislative relations and legislative oversight in West Africa, is that, of the various conditions that promote or prevent the effective use of oversight tools and capacity, political will is the single most important. These claims have both theoretical and practical relevance, for if political will is as important as is claimed for the effective performance of the oversight function, then international organisations may have to reconsider their approach to legislative strengthening.     

公司章程效力探析

公司章程的效力问题一直是司法实践中的难题,从现行法律规定出发,就公司章程对于公司设立的效力,公司章程的应当记载事项和任意记载事项,公司章程的违法性认定以及有限责任公司章程个别化思考阐述公司章程的效力问题。     

Legislative oversight in Nigeria: an empirical review and assessment

This article builds upon and extends the analyses presented by Fashagba (2009) and drills down on the analyses of oversight in Nigeria presented by Pelizzo and Stapenhurst (2014). It presents more nuanced findings. Based on an in-country document search and 45 personal interviews with politicians, parliamentary staff, civil society representatives and journalists, the article demonstrates that the Nigerian National Assembly possesses the tools and constitutional powers to undertake oversight; what it lacks so far is the political will of National Assembly representatives and senators to use these tools and powers effectively.     

论合同的解释

本文在对合同解释的必要性及各国立法现状进行阐述的基础上,提出了合同解释的基本原则,并就合同解释规范化的问题提出了三方面的建议：１．合同解释应采纳“折衷说”;２．法律应明确法官解释合同的条件;３．完善合同解释制度,必须加强典型案例的汇编工作。     

浅议我国意思表示错误制度

意思表示错误涉及法律行为和私法自治的核心,对其具体规制体现了私法自治和信赖保护之间的价值平衡。与大陆法系的其他国家相比,我国的意思表示错误在制度构造、构成要件与法律效果方面,既有其创新优点又存在着诸多不足。     

论商誉侵权行为及其反不正当竞争法规制

近年来,商誉和商誉权法律保护问题开始引起人们的关注。司法实践中商誉损害赔偿纠纷也越来越多,对商誉提 供全面的法律保护已成为市场经济发展的必然要求。我国《反不正当竞争法》应将损害商誉不正当竞争行为准 确、科学地加以类型化,同时适度扩大对商誉的保护范围和保护力度,维护公平竞争,保护权利人的合法权益。     

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。     

Who's flying the plane: serotonin levels, aggression and free will

The present paper addresses the philosophical problem raised by current causal neurochemical models of impulsive violence and aggression: to what extent can we hold violent criminal offenders responsible for their conduct if that conduct is the result of deterministic biochemical processes in the brain. This question is currently receiving a great deal of attention among neuroscientists, legal scholars and philosophers. We examine our current knowledge of neuroscience to assess the possible roles of deterministic factors which induce impulsive aggression, and the extent to which this behavior can be controlled by neural conditioning mechanisms. Neural conditioning mechanisms, we suggest, may underlie what we consider the basis of responsible (though not necessarily moral) behavior: the capacity to give and take reasons. The models we first examine are based in part upon the role played by the neurotransmitter, serotonin, in the regulation of violence and aggression. Collectively, these results would appear to argue in favor of the view that low brain serotonin levels induce impulsive aggression which overrides mechanisms related to rational decision making processes. We next present an account of responsibility as based on the capacity to exercise a certain kind of reason-responsive control over one's conduct. The problem with such accounts of responsibility, however, is that they fail to specify a neurobiological realization of such mechanisms of control. We present a neurobiological, and weakly determinist, framework for understanding how persons can exercise guidance control over their conduct. This framework is based upon classical conditioning of neurons in the prefrontal cortex that allow for a decision making mechanism that provides for prefrontal cortical control of the sites in the brain which express aggressive behavior that include the hypothalamus and midbrain periaqueductal gray. The authors support the view that, in many circumstances, neural conditioning mechanisms provide the basis for the control of human aggression in spite of the presence of brain serotonin levels that might otherwise favor the expression of impulsive aggressive behavior. Indeed if those neural conditioning mechanisms underlie the human capacity to exercise control, they may be the neural realization of reason-responsiveness generally.     

Planning for the succession of digital assets

Estate planners’ current strategies for the disposition of digital assets are quickly becoming out-dated. This is largely the result of ambiguities concerning proprietary rights of digital assets after death. When advising clients on how to plan for the succession of digital assets, it is important for estate planners to understand the nature of digital assets today and to recognize how these assets may evolve. In failing to take into account the evolving nature of digital assets, estate planners are liable to craft short-sighted and thus ineffective succession plans. As the popularity of digital executor businesses increases, estate planners ought to caution clients on their shortcomings. Additionally, legislatures must create statutes which outline the rights of individuals vis-à-vis online service providers.     

论跨境环境损害民事责任的法律适用——以冲突规范为研究对象

作为统一实体法规范的国际环境民事责任公约在高度危险活动领域如核能利用、石油污染等发挥着巨大作用,但对于一般环境损害未做任何规定,因此,需要由国内冲突法规范加以调整。由于传统的调整方法——侵权行为地法很难解决当今环境损害中的所有问题,笔者以为在继续追求冲突法正义的同时也应顾及到索赔主体实体利益的保护,于是,有必要考虑新的系属公式如当事人合意选择的法律、对受害人有利的法律等。但仍应赋予侵权行为地法最重要的地位,同时采用选择性冲突规则。