Illiberal Democrats versus Undemocratic Liberals: The Struggle Over the Future of Thailand's Fragile Democracy

Abstract

This article examines the inter-related factors that underpin the fragility of Thailand's democracy. Uneven economic development, the high levels of income inequality, and unequal access to power and resources are significant drivers of Thailand's ongoing political conflict. Social divides across classes and regions, and populist exploitation of the rural poor's sense of alienation from the traditional ruling elites, provide a volatile backdrop to national politics. In addition, Thailand's unstable political history and the weakness of liberal institutions present risks to its democracy. The army, the revered monarch and the judiciary comprise elites whose periodic interventions in politics and reservations about electoral democracy further render the Thai polity fragile. Thailand's political situation represents a ‘slow-burning’ crisis of democracy: a long-term historical confrontation developing slowly, with the fundamental issues unresolved. It is undergoing a period of social turmoil fuelled by a power struggle between competing material interests and by an ideational contest to determine the country's constitutive political rules. This can be conceptualised as a struggle for control of Thailand's future between a heterogeneous populist-capitalist movement of illiberal democracy and conservative forces of undemocratic liberalism.     

Constructing courts after communism: Reevaluating the effect of electoral uncertainty

A prominent view in political science is that electoral uncertainty leads institutional designers to prefer independent and powerful courts. Yet few scholars have examined the design of constitutional courts systematically across Eastern Europe and those who have employed the results of elections held after constitutions were adopted to estimate the actors' perceptions of the balance of power prior to the court's design. This work reevaluates the effects of electoral uncertainty in post-communist Europe using more appropriate data and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis to outline the different causal configurations linking electoral uncertainty to the initial judicial empowerment.     

The legal effect of EU Regulations

The EU institutions are increasingly addressing harmonisation by means of regulation rather than the traditional use of directives. This is particularly impacting areas such as data protection, financial services regulation and European standardisation in Information and Communications Technology. More broadly, using directly applicable regulations which may have horizontal and vertical direct effect rather than directives has important administrative and constitutional implications for their application in national law and impacts on Member States' discretion to implement supplementary legislation which falls within the remit of the regulation in question. This is of particular concern where governments implement policies which might be in contravention of these rules. This may be the case in relation to the UK government's public procurement policy which mandates royalty free standards rather than royalty bearing standards with the option for the licence holder to licence royalty free.     

Signaling and Counter‐Signaling in the Judicial Hierarchy: An Empirical Analysis of En Banc Review

We leverage the institutional features of American courts to evaluate the importance of whistleblowers in hierarchical oversight. Drawing on a formal theory of signaling in the judicial hierarchy, we examine the role of whistleblowing dissents in triggering en banc review of three‐judge panels by full circuits of the Courts of Appeals. The theory generates predictions about how dissent interacts with judicial preferences to influence circuits' review and reversal decisions, which we test using original and existing data. First, we show that judges who dissent counter to their preferences are more likely to see their dissents lead to review and reversal. Second, we show that dissents are most influential when the likelihood of non‐compliance by a three‐judge panel is highest. Our results underscore the importance of dissent in the judicial hierarchy and illustrate how judicial whistleblowers can help appellate courts target the most important cases for review.     

专家辅助人制度的现状、困境与改善建议-以浙江省为例的实证分析

新《刑事诉讼法》确立的专家辅助人制度对提高鉴定意见的质量,改革庭审方式和证据制度有着重要的意义,但因为法律仅对其作出了笼统的规定而没能发挥出应有的作用。通过对法律工作者的问卷调查发现,在专家辅助人的诉讼地位、专家辅助人的意见属性等问题上存在着较大的分歧,因此,要完善我国的专家辅助人制度,就要明确专家辅助人的独立诉讼地位,确保专家辅助人真正地参与到庭审的质证中来,才能达到这一制度设计的理想状态。     

刑事诉讼制度发展的三种模式：一个概要性的分析

从各国刑事诉讼制度变迁的基本事实出发,大致可以概括出三种不同的刑事诉讼制度发展模式,即立法修律模式、司法判例模式与试点实验模式.这三种模式具有不同的内在特质,在推动刑事诉讼制度发展上各有其独特优势与内在局限.各国刑事诉讼制度变迁的历程表明,刑事诉讼制度发展不能只依赖一种模式,应是多种模式的组合或交替使用.目前我国刑事诉讼制度发展主要依靠立法修律和试点实验,司法判例还未被有效运用.未来应该根据各国刑事诉讼制度发展的经验以及上述三种模式的实际价值与内在局限,合理确定我国刑事诉讼制度发展的模式组合。     

早期普通法中的司法与王权——英国司法独立的“中世纪起源”的再思考

司法独立的起源,往往被追溯到中世纪英格兰的普通法法院.但对于普通法法院形成之初的诉讼个案的考察却表明,尽管这一时期的法院已脱离于国王的人身而“自主运行”,但并没有完全摆脱国王的干预.在涉及法律疑难与王室利益的重大案件中,国王仍然直接或间接地左右着判决的结果;即便是那些表面上看来不利于国王的判决,背后依然可能隐藏了更深层的政治利益的考量.这一时期的法官自主性仍然是非制度化的,也无法等同于现代意义的司法独立的起源。     

论刑法对网络造谣行为的规制——以对“公共秩序”法益的理解为切入点

信息网络技术的发展,使得虚假信息的传播速度加快。影响范围急剧扩大。特别是一些严重扰乱社会秩序的网络造谣行为,具有相当程度的社会危害性。《刑法》对这类网络造谣行为的规制．应当充分运用法益分析的方法,对侵犯不同类型法益的网络造谣行为对症下药。与其冒违背罪刑法定基本原则的风险,而用寻衅滋事罪来规制网络造谣行为,不如利用其他更有针对性的罪名。对编造、故意传播虚假恐怖信息罪进行扩大解释或者立法将编造、故意传播虚假恐怖信息罪的犯罪对象进行扩张都不失为一种更符合刑法基本原则的方法。     

论经验法则在司法上的功能与应用

在审判实务上,无论是对案件事实的认定还是选择适用法律,均离不开经验法则。经验法则在盖然性上的强弱直接影响着法官对待证事实形成心证的状态,也影响着法官对于证据的自由评价。在认定案件事实上,经验法则与相关证据在功能作用上既相互关联,又互为区别。法官自应有一个对经验法则进行发现、认知、选择、判断和采纳的过程,并应密切关注其妥适性,以维护司法的公信度。     

医学会从事医疗损害鉴定之合法性研究

本文回顾了我国医疗纠纷鉴定体制发展历程,分析了医学会鉴定与司法鉴定的优缺点。在此基础上,认为在现阶段,医学会参与医疗损害鉴定具有一定的、但并不充分的法律依据,具有相对的合法性,医学会应属准法定鉴定部门。可以通过最高人民法院制定司法解释或卫生部制定规章的方式使其尽快转正。尽管如此,医学会作出的鉴定结论并不具有必然的证明力,其鉴定程序和鉴定书形式等亦应符合法律规定,而鉴定人署名并出庭接受质证是其鉴定结论被法院采信的前提条件。