论法官的道德素质与司法公正

法官良好的道德素质是实现司法公正的必要主观条件之一。法官的道德素质状况既影响着实体公正 ,又影响着程序公正和形象公正。良好的道德素质使司法公正成为法官坚定的职业信仰和自觉的职业追求 ,使公正司法成为法官自愿的职业惯性行为。多方加强法官队伍职业道德建设是司法公正的客观要求。     

矛盾与协调：自由裁量还是严格规则

正确处理自由裁量和严格规则的关系在法官审判的实践中是极其重要的。从二者矛盾的产生原因出发，深入探讨法官应如何在司法实践中处理好二者之间的矛盾关系，以使二者相协调，可以最大限度地卖现司法正义。     

中国内地与澳门行政诉讼若干制度之比较

作为沿袭葡萄牙、并深受法国行政审判制度影响的澳门行政法,它的若干制度与经验对内地的行政诉讼制度可以有所借鉴和启示。因此,比较内地与澳门行政诉讼制度中的若干因素,包含受案范围、当事人资格以及诉讼客体变更,我们认为,促进行政诉讼的类型化发展并加快行政诉讼配套制度的建立,特别是行政程序法的制定,这应当成为未来完善内地行政诉讼法的重要内容。     

刑事侦查活动中对犯罪嫌疑人隐私权的保护

刑事侦查活动具有双重目的:一是追求侦查的效率,二是保护人权。隐私权作为人权的一项基本内容,由于其自身的特点,更容易受到侦查权的侵害。应借鉴西方一些国家在侦查程序中对隐私权的保护措施,弥补我国在刑事侦查活动中对隐私权保护之不足。     

司法实践中的涉外法律适用问题初探

中国加入世界贸易组织对人民法院涉外民商事审判工作提出了新要求,需要建立适应WTO规则的涉外民商事审判制度,包括:建立适合世贸组织规则的审判运行机制;落实公开审判制度,增强审判工作透明度;准确适用法律,确保案件裁判的统一性;提高法官队伍素质,实现涉外审判专业化。     

Judicial Review,Irrationality, and the Legitimacy of Merits-Review

The definition of the irrationality ground of judicial review recognises the constitutional principle of the separation of powers, in allowing for judicial control of the executive only very rarely. The author in a previous article in this study found that the courts, on occasions, had intervened in circumstances where administrative decisions arguably were not irrational. To this end, the purpose of this article is to assess the constitutionality of these seemingly low standards of irrationality. The author does so by reference either to the manner of review employed—the use of the proportionality principle, for example—or the context of the administrative decision under scrutiny, such as the infringement of the applicant’s fundamental rights. The author finds that the cases from the previous article where low standards of irrationality were arguably adopted were, in fact, legitimate according to these chosen methods of evaluation. However, this is an interim conclusion because, for reasons of word length, the author is unable to complete a full assessment here. It is therefore proposed that a subsequent article will continue to examine the constitutionality of these cases. Furthermore, the author will also try and establish a zone of executive decision-making, for reasons of democracy, where the courts are excluded from irrationality review. If the author is unsuccessful in this regard, the final conclusion of this study will inevitably be that low standards of judicial intervention exist without limit—a clear assault on the constitutional principle stated above.

Do a Law’s Policy Implications Affect Beliefs About Its Constitutionality? An Experimental Test

Although a substantial empirical literature has found associations between judges' political orientation and their judicial decisions, the nature of the relationship between policy preferences and constitutional reasoning remains unclear. In this experimental study, law students were asked to determine the constitutionality of a hypothetical law, where the policy implications of the law were manipulated while holding all legal evidence constant. The data indicate that, even with an incentive to select the ruling best supported by the legal evidence, liberal participants were more likely to overturn laws that decreased taxes than laws that increased taxes. The opposite pattern held for conservatives. The experimental manipulation significantly affected even those participants who believed their policy preferences had no influence on their constitutional decisions.     

韩国刑事“量刑基准制度”推进动向及“量刑调查”主导权之争考察

“量刑基准制度”是指法官在对刑事被告人定罪量刑时可供参照的具体客观的基准。作为韩国法务部“变化战略计划”重要课题内容,韩国近年来开始着手推进刑事“量刑基准”改革方案。本文将通过对韩国“量刑基准制度”引进背景、量刑委员会及“量刑基准”促进动向及方案内容、韩国法院及法务部量刑调查主导权之争及韩国“量刑基准”制定的基本经验等进行考察,以期对我国刑事量刑制度研究提供可资借鉴的依据。     

Explaining differences in EMAS participation rates across Europe: the importance of institutions,incomplete information and path dependence

What factors shape environmental policies across Europe? In order to answer this question most economists would probably adopt a Public Choice approach. This approach has convincingly explained some aspects of environmental policies that exist in a similar fashion across Europe. But why do many environmental policies differ across European countries? This article argues that in order to understand differences in environmental policies in Europe North’s analysis of institutional change focusing on formal and informal institutions, incomplete information and path dependence is useful. North’s approach is applied to explain differences in a particular field of European environmental policy: The implementation of the EU’s Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS) in Germany, the Netherlands, and the UK. The starting point of the analysis is the observation that participation of companies in EMAS markedly differs between countries. It is shown that these differences can be explained with differences in formal and informal institutions in the three Member States, incomplete information of relevant actors, and path dependence.     

Financing the Athenian state: public choice in the age of Demosthenes

The present essay analyses Athenian finances during the fourth century BC, the ‘Age of Demosthenes’, from both the revenue and expenditure points of view. It examines how Athenians practiced the concept of ‘economic democracy’ on matters of public choice, and the sometimes ingenious solutions they adopted for financing public goods such as defense, education and ‘social security’. Ancient Athens, the ‘prototype’ political democracy, was advanced also in matters of public administration, finance and institutions, on which political democracy was based and without their smooth running could not have functioned.