The Victims’ Directive and What Victims Want From Restorative Justice

Following fierce campaigning by victims’ groups, the European Commission has entered into a process of legislative and policy reforms with the aim of repositioning the victim in criminal proceedings. By November 2015, member states will need to have demonstrated that they have modified their domestic laws to give effect to the Directive 2012/29/EU establishing minimum standards on the rights, support, and protection of victims of crime. For the first time, restorative justice is explicitly regulated at EU legal level, as the Directive aims to establish a baseline for its safe implementation across member states. With this EU-wide policy backdrop and using original data, the article posits evidence-based recommendations for the implementation of the Directive. The research was carried out in 2013–14 as part of the “Restorative Justice in Europe” project co-financed by the European Commission. The research took place in the United Kingdom and combined desk research and qualitative research strategies with victims, while it triangulated its findings with follow-up surveys with offenders and professionals.     

Regendering modernism: the woman artist in Irish women’s fiction

The period between 1922 and 1960 is often characterized as one of social and cultural stagnation in Ireland. Irish fiction was dominated by an avant-garde writing in exile and the local dominance of the short story. Attention to the non-canonical fiction of women during the period, however, reveals a literature that exceeds this paradigm. Meaney focuses on two novels, The Troubled House by Rosamond Jacob and As Music and Splendour by Kate O’Brien, which both feature women as artists. This figure provides in both cases a mode of combining a commitment to narrative realism with a self-reflexive exploration of the role of art, thus evading the fictional polarities of the period. The woman artist as fictional character also offers an opportunity to explore the relationship between gender, sexuality, politics and art. The linkage between sexual dissidence and aesthetic freedom is a persistent trope of modernism in the Irish context, even if it is often critically submerged under the figure of exile. Both The Troubled House and As Music and Splendour might be considered to be supplements to Irish modernism in the Derridean sense, ‘an originary necessity and an essential accident’. Through the figure of the woman artist, both of these marginal novels transgress the configurations of gender at the heart of that modernism’s aesthetic project. Both link transgressive sexuality with artistic production. In doing so they posit a very different relationship between sexuality, aesthetics and politics.     

Local Government and Local Governance: 1944–2011

Abstract

Since the establishment of the tri-partite system of state education after the Second World War, the once simple relationships between central government and local government and the individual school have become increasingly complex. This article considers the key governance issues for schools and colleges in England and how they have been affected by the redistribution of power between central government and local government. The principal foci are the main legislative changes and the impact they have had on the respective powers and responsibilities of central government, local government and schools and colleges. The radical developments since the formation of the coalition government in May 2010 have accelerated the shift of power to central government from local government and by the end of the first term of the coalition the local authority will have little more than a vestigial role in the provision of secondary education and a diminishing role in primary and special education. As academy status becomes the norm (as it already is for secondary schools in some authorities) central government will be dealing directly with autonomous schools and academy chains. With more schools directly employing staff and with funding levels set nationally, the pattern and nature of public education will have been irrevocably changed.     

认罪认罚案件上诉问题探讨

认罪认罚案件上诉权的设置存在多元价值冲突的情形,基于公正价值与效率价值的平衡需要,应当明确赋予认罪认罚案件被告人上诉权.在上诉权的设置上,应当对适用速裁程序审理的认罪认罚案件被告人的上诉权进行限制,要求速裁案件被告人上诉必须有正当理由,而认罪认罚案件适用其他程序审理的则无需附加理由.速裁案件被告人上诉的正当理由主要包括...     

再论建筑作品的著作权保护——从“盛放鸟巢”烟花侵权纠纷案谈起

从国家体育场起诉“盛放鸟巢”烟花侵权案入手,通过界定建筑作品的保护范围,重点分析建筑作品的复制形式及其合理使用问题,再论我国建筑作品的著作权保护.意在强调建筑作品不包括建筑设计图和建筑模型,建筑作品与图形作品和模型作品是著作权法两类不同的保护客体.建筑作品的侵权与否主要取决于两个作品之间是否存在实质性相似.     

马克思主义大众化在中国道路中的价值功能

中国道路是围绕什么是社会主义,怎样建设社会主义这个根本问题,在理论和实践中形成和发展起来的中国特色社会主义道路。人民大众坚定走中国道路是中华民族实现伟大复兴的前提,这需要用马克思主义理论武装人民大众,并在人民大众的中国道路实践中,充分彰显马克思主义理论的科学认知、方法指引、实践指导价值功能。     

我国官员财产申报制度的建立与完善

官员财产申报制度,是国际社会普遍采取的一种约束政府官员行为的制度,实施官员财产申报制度能有效遏制贪污贿赂等职务犯罪行为。鉴于我国现行的财产申报制度存在申报主体和申报范围偏窄、只向上级申报不接受公众监督、可操作性不强等问题及这一制度在我国的发展现状,我们必须从我国建立健全反腐败体系、加强反腐倡廉建设和开展反腐败斗争的实际需要出发,借鉴国外在应对腐败和对官员监督方面的经验,加强对我国的官员财产申报制度的研究。通过试点,争取在全国范围内早日建立并推行官员财产申报制度,让官员财产申报制度成为制度反腐的有力支撑,最终通过立法来完善我国的官员财产申报制度。     

去学科化——党校学报发展的一种思路

在出版体制改革深人的大背景下，党校学报的发展面临着严峻的形势，迫切需要调整发展思路。当前，一个可行的思路就是在栏目设置上以问题化代替学科化，以此作为党校学报特色化发展的方向。     

党对军队绝对领导权确立的历史过程

建立一支党领导下的人民军队,是中国革命取得胜利的前提和保障。党对军队绝对领导权的确立,从三湾改编提出党对军队绝对领导的原则、架构党对军队绝对领导的组织体系开始,到古田会议的召开,标志着党对军队绝对领导权的确立是一个历史的过程。充分认识党对军队绝对领导权的确立过程,对新形势下走中国特色的建军之路具有十分重要的意义。     

关于完善我国医疗事故责任等级的建议简

我国现行的《医疗事故技术鉴定暂行办法》规定了医疗事故中医疗过失行为的责任程度分为：完全责任、主要责任、次要责任、轻微责任。该办法用这四种责任程度来判定医疗过失行为的责任程度存在明显的缺陷,缺少了一个同等责任程度的规定。为了今后便于司法实践的操作,公平合理地维护医患双方的权益,应该增加同等责任程度的规定,来完善我国医疗事故技术鉴定相关立法。