Religion and National Identity in America and Europe

America and Europe have had very different religious experiences, and these differences have continuing consequences. In America, the preponderance of Reform Protestantism gave rise to religious and political pluralism, a religious marketplace, and the continuing vitality of the churches. In Europe, the dominance of state churches gave rise to the eventual rejection of these churches and religions when the traditional political and social authorities were rejected, particularly by the Generation of 1968. However, Europe’s extreme secularization has rendered it confused and ineffective in dealing with the new religious challenge posed by Muslim immigrant communities.

德国公务员的教育与培训

公务员素质和能力是行政管理中的一个关键性因素,而素质和能力又取决于教育和培训。如何充分发挥教育的效能,如何提高公务员的能力,是公务员教育和培训的重要课题。本集中讨论了德国公务员的教育培训制度,介绍和分析了德国公务员的职前教育和职后培训的基本做法,为我国公务员的教育和管理提供了一定的借鉴。     

The effects of convergence: internationalization and the changing distribution of net value added in large German firms

The paper examines whether and how the increasing internationalization of firms impacts on the operation of a co-ordinated market economy. Following the tenets of agency theory, it assumes that an emerging market for corporate control changes the monitoring mechanisms that oversee management. Since Anglo-American forms of monitoring are usually associated with a higher return for investors compared with Continental European firms, a change in the distribution of the net value added of firms is expected. Using financial data on fifty-nine large German companies, the paper shows that the emerging convergence of German corporate governance practices to Anglo-American standards has had a weak, but significant, impact on the distribution of net value added. This is in contrast to the impact of the internationalization of firms on product markets, which does not have an effect. Since the market for corporate control is, however, still underdeveloped in Germany, the main effects remain to be seen.     

论居住权的权利建构

早期罗马法上的居住权制度已被后世两大法系演进为现代收益性居住权,集合物权、人权、民生权等多项权利基因,且在当下通过诉诸法院而表达出来,经由法院裁判生成一种新型权利。鉴于其权利结构具有融合性,能够有效融入我国《物权法》体系,故当以私法意义上的用益物权属性为权利基础,形成以《物权法》为核心的权利架构,明确居住权的主体与客体、权利与义务、变动与终止,以保障其权利的可诉性与规范的可操作性,拓宽居住权保护的救济路径,以实现居住权的法律保护。     

The Crisis of German Social Democracy Revisited

This article analyses the dramatic electoral decline of German social democracy since 2003. It argues that the SPD's decision, under the leadership of former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, to engage in welfare state retrenchment and labour market deregulation during the ‘Hartz reforms’ (2003–05) demoralised the SPD electorate. The SPD subsequently lost half of its former electoral coalition, namely blue‐collar voters and socially disadvantaged groups, while efforts to gain access to centrist and middle‐class voters have failed to produce any compensating gains. While the SPD's decline from a large to a mid‐sized party is part of a larger transformation of the German party system, no political recovery is possible for social democracy without a fundamental change of strategy, namely efforts to regain former voters by offering credible social welfare and redistributive policies. The SPD will not be able to delegate such policies in a ‘convoy model’ to other parties, such as the Left Party; nor will a modest ‘correction’ of the earlier course, such as has been attempted since 2009 under the leadership of current party chairman Sigmar Gabriel, be sufficient to recover lost electoral ground.     

Ethnic Cleansing in Silesia 1950-89 and the Ennationalizing Policies of Poland and Germany

The rise of nationalism in Central Europe in the nineteenth century had dire consequences for Silesia, the far-flung, multi-ethnic frontier region of Prussia/Germany, bordering on Austria-Hungary and Russia. The dividing up in 1921 of Upper Silesia between Germany and the newly established Polish nation-state, and the ensuing ennationalization of both regions, triggered off population movements of 300,000 persons before 1939, when Berlin seized the whole of Upper Silesia and embarked on a policy of thorough Germanization. After 1945 this was succeeded by Polonization as Moscow granted most of the German territories east of the Oder-Neisse line (including almost the whole of Silesia) to Poland. In consequence, almost the entire Lower Silesian population either fled, was evacuated in 1944-5 or expelled by 1948, and the region was repopulated by Poles. The same was true in Upper Silesia but to a more limited degree as Warsaw decided to retain most of the local population: as 'Poles', they would 'justify' incorporation of the region into Poland, and they would continue to run the Upper Silesian industries so badly needed for the country's reconstruction. Although officially recognized as Poles, Upper Silesians were treated as second-class citizens. Whereas, by 1960, almost all of the remaining Lower Silesian Germans had been allowed to leave, this option was not available to Upper Silesians who, as a result, became more alienated, more German-orientated and even more deeply identified with their specific ethnic groups. Consequently, although Warsaw could not recognize them as non-Poles as it would contradict the offical myth of the state's ethnic homogeneity, an increasing number were allowed to leave for West Germany, especially after Bonn's major concessions to the Polish Communist regime in 1970 which had the dual effect of making hard-to-come-by goods more available for 'real' Poles, and of replenishing the conservative electorate in West Germany. On the other hand, those who stayed successfully defied Poland's ennationalizing policies by the establishment of various German organizations. The emigration of 1950-89 was in fact an 'ethnic cleansing' as it was originally set off by discrimination on ethnic grounds; the growing disparity in living standards between West Germany and Poland was accompanied of a similar gap in the granting of civil and human rights.     

德、日刑法定罪模式与刑法机能的实现

定罪机制是刑法与社会联为一体的中介 ,是刑法机能实现的重要途径。德、日刑法定罪模式是一种构成要件论的定罪模式 ,只有顺次通过构成要件该当性、违法性、有责性三重判断的行为才能认定为犯罪行为 ,保障了被告人及其他人的自由 ;同时 ,在构成要件该当性、违法性、有责性的判断过程中 ,通过有意识地放弃刑法干预特定领域内的行为的方式 ,保护了社会的进步和发展。促进刑法人权保障机能的实现是德、日刑法定罪模式促进刑法机能实现的主流     

The Future of Staatsrecht: Dominance,Demise or Demystification?

The relationship between the national and the European legal orders is affected by the way it is theorised by the national constitutional traditions. This article will explore the opposing constitutional assumptions in Germany that underlie two interpretations of what in Anglo-Saxon countries is known as constitutional law: Staatsrecht and Verfassungsrecht. The two contending visions are generated from different conceptions of the European Union and, especially, the state. The origins of the German constitutional traditions will be historically reconstructed. Although Staatsrecht has historically offered the dominant interpretation of public law, Verfassungsrecht has 'de-mystified' the state. To continue to offer a coherent interpretation Staatsrecht need not abandon the state as its central concept, but will need to re-examine the content of the concept in light of modern forms of constitutionalism and European integration.     

试析《德国税法通则》对我国当前立法的借鉴意义

《税收基本法(或税法通则)》的制定是关系到我国税收法律体系的重新整合与完善,关系到纳税人权利保护与国家征税权实现的平衡,关系到最终实现和谐的税收征纳关系的税收法治建设的基础环节.在制定税法通则的过程中,对国家与纳税人之间的权利义务将产生重大的影响,因此,必须兼顾各方当事人的利益,加以平衡协调.为积极推进该浩大的税收立法工程,对外国先进的立法经验应当有所借鉴和吸收.《德国税法通则》(Abgabenordnunp)自1919年公布实旌以来,几经修改,已经形成了体系完整、结构严谨的税收基本大法,对我国税法通则的制定有着重要的借鉴意义.为此,特对《德国税法通则》的结构和主要内容加以评介,以为我国《税收基本法(税法通则)》制定之借鉴.     

德国地方级层公民投票诉讼制度与经验反省——以公民创制提案申请拒绝之诉为研讨进路

德国地方公民投票诉讼制度在理论和实践上均比较成熟。公民创制提案申请拒绝之诉是该制度的重心,以其为主轴探讨公民投票诉讼制度的运作,可展示后者机关诉讼的特色以及诉讼类别与诉讼主体等主要内容。这种德国经验的总结可以拓展直接民主充分、有效运行之思路,并启迪我国的民主进程和诉讼法制的发展。