POLITICS WITHOUT PARTIES: AFGHANISTAN’S LONG ROAD TO DEMOCRACY

Democracy has not brought stability to Afghanistan in the almost two decades since the fall of the Taliban. But it would be wrong to conclude that the soil of Afghanistan is not conducive to the tree of democracy, when in reality it was never planted with any skill. Democracy did not fail in Afghanistan; it was never even tried.

A series of connected mistakes began with the introduction of a flawed electoral system, no insistence on a transparent register of voters, lack of proper scrutiny of polling, and a lack of support for the development of reformist political parties and other functioning civil society institutions. From the start the US did not see this as a ‘nation-building’ project, but nevertheless US officials made far-reaching decisions about the nature of Afghan democracy. These were seriously unsound, and the electoral system introduced itself operated against the development of strong democratic institutions.

This article outlines the problems inherent in the Single Non-Transferable Vote system, examines the history of Afghan political parties through the twentieth century and asks whether alternative and traditional forms of Afghan government provide any real obstacles to the development of modern politics. The 2004 constitution was the seventh since 1923: this was not a green field site in terms of institution-building as it was seen by many of the international officials who flooded in after the fall of the Taliban.     

Follow the Candidates,Not the Parties? Personal Vote in a Regional De-institutionalized Party System

This article analyses how personal vote shapes electoral competition and predicts electoral results in a regional de-institutionalized party system. After having analysed the connection between unpredictable political environment and personal vote, we build an original empirical model that explores preferential vote and patterns of re-candidacies and endorsements of the most voted candidates in the Calabrian regional elections. The analysis shows that leading candidates retain a more stable and predictable support over time with respect to parties and that candidates and their system of interactions are able to predict the electoral results better than parties and their alliances.     

“熟人”与“陌生人”的人际关系比较

从农业社会向工业社会的过渡,伴随着从熟人社会向陌生人社会的转变。熟人社会的人际关系是一种建立在亲缘、地缘基础上的自由的稀薄的人际关系,以习俗型信任为特征。工业社会的人际关系是建立在契约的基础上以及受到契约、物和物化了的社会设置所中介了的间断式人际关系,它以契约型信任为特征。后工业社会也是一个陌生人社会,但是,由于社会网络结构的生成,人际关系将是一种自由稠密的人际关系,在这种人际关系中,所包含的是合作型信任。对于中国社会来说,当前的主要任务是要跨越工业社会的人际关系模式,自觉地促进后工业社会人际关系的生成。     

Some risks of tokenization and blockchainizaition of private law

The paper focuses on the analysis of the problems that may be driven by mass tokenization of the objects of civil law, i.e. the creation of a digital representation of such objects in the form of a record in blockchain. This occurs where the value of such objects is transferred subsequently by means of disposal of such tokens, which is a subject of separate rights to it. The paper outlines two core problems, which were inspired by recent legislative activities in Belarus and Russia. The first is a possible displacement of existing legal regimes of objects of civil rights by the legal regime of the token. Secondly, the problem of definition of the nature of rights to tokens arises (in rem versus ad personam) as well as remedies for their violations. Provisions of the Belarus Decree “On the development of digital economy” of 21 December 2017 and drafts of the laws on blockchain and ICO, discussed in Russian Parliament and Government are taken to illustrate these problems.     

EU General Data Protection Regulation: Changes and implications for personal data collecting companies

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will come into force in the European Union (EU) in May 2018 to meet current challenges related to personal data protection and to harmonise data protection across the EU. Although the GDPR is anticipated to benefit companies by offering consistency in data protection activities and liabilities across the EU countries and by enabling more integrated EU-wide data protection policies, it poses new challenges to companies. They are not necessarily prepared for the changes and may lack awareness of the upcoming requirements and the GDPR's coercive measures. The implementation of the GDPR requirements demands substantial financial and human resources, as well as training of employees; hence, companies need guidance to support them in this transition. The purposes of this study were to compare the current Data Protection Directive 95/46/EC with the GDPR by systematically analysing their differences and to identify the GDPR's practical implications, specifically for companies that provide services based on personal data. This study aimed to identify and discuss the changes introduced by the GDPR that would have the most practical relevance to these companies and possibly affect their data management and usage practices. Therefore, a review and a thematic analysis and synthesis of the article-level changes were carried out. Through the analysis, the key practical implications of the changes were identified and classified. As a synthesis of the results, a framework was developed, presenting 12 aspects of these implications and the corresponding guidance on how to prepare for the new requirements. These aspects cover business strategies and practices, as well as organisational and technical measures.     

User review portability: Why and how?

User reviews of products on the e-commerce platforms are a critical determinant of inter-platform competition, as a large number of consumers base their purchasing choices on the related reviews written by other users. The network effects between the number of reviews and new users give a sustainable competitive advantage to incumbent platforms. While business literature has recognised the commercial value of the user reviews, legal scholarship has paid little attention to levelling the playing field between incumbents and new e-commerce platforms by exploring the portability of user reviews. This paper bridges this gap. We explore the possibility of porting user reviews through two legal mechanisms—first, traditional Intellectual Property law; second, the new Right to Data Portability (RtDP) as enshrined in the GDPR. After recognising the limitations of these mechanisms in enabling the portability of reviews, we suggest that pure data aggregators, such as Personal Information Management Services (PIMS), are best placed to make user reviews available to multiple platforms.     

Exploring,Maintaining, and Disengaging—The Three Phases of a Legislator's Life

Building on the understanding that a career is a dynamic concept, this article applies the idea that parliamentarians' legislative activities vary according to their career stage and age. This is partly a function of experience and partly a function of future career prospects. Using a new data set of the German Bundestag (2002–13) that pinpoints the age and career stage of MPs at the time of individual activities, namely, attending votes, posing parliamentary questions, and holding rapporteurships, we identify practical and normative challenges to MPs' legislative work: It takes time to learn the trade and as the desire for re‐election dissipates, a last‐period problem arises. MPs significantly reduce their activity levels toward the end of their legislative careers, indicating a clear loss of accountability toward their parties and their constituents.     

基因及基因研究的法律控制

基因是必须严防流失的国家资源 ,又是必须严加保护的个人数据。基因研究为人类认识自身和自然开辟了广阔的前景 ,也提出了严峻的挑战。对基因与基因研究必须采取严密、细致、具有可操作性的法律控制措施     

人身危险性概念新论

人身危险性是刑法理论中一个极为重要的范畴 ,我国刑法典中存在大量有关人身危险性内容的规定。然而 ,关于人身危险性的概念 ,我国刑法理论界鲜有详细、全面的论述。从存在论与价值论相结合的角度看 ,人身危险性是由行为人特定人格决定的犯罪可能性或者再犯可能性 ,是特定人格事实和规范评价的统一 ;从这一概念出发 ,人身危险性具有多方面的特征     

Development of latent fingermarks on thermal paper: Preliminary investigation into use of iodine fuming

Thermal paper finds its extensive use in the modern day life and could act as a vital piece of physical evidence carrying latent fingermarks. A large number of citations are available in literature suggesting various techniques to develop these marks but all are suffering with one or the other drawbacks such as complex and cumbersome procedure, pre- or post-treatment, background coloration and efficiency to develop aged fingermarks. In present study, a very simple and novel method involving iodine fuming has been suggested to develop fingermarks which were not only permanent but also without any background coloration. The suggested method does not involve any pre- or post-treatment of the substrate and was able to develop very old fingermarks (upto >1 year). In this study an attempt has been made to explain the reaction mechanism of the process. In case of different types of thermal papers, presence of different substituents on leuco dye (lactone ring) structure resulted in development of different colored fingermarks upon reaction with iodine. Sebaceous material laden marks have been found to be more intensely developed as compared to eccrine marks, and the difference was more pronounced in case of aged fingermarks.