英国派生诉讼的最新发展：普通法的回归

股东派生诉讼源于英国普通法，历经百年发展，因其诉讼程序的繁杂、裁判标准的不明确等受到诟病。2006年的公司法以制定法的形式抛弃普通法，对派生诉讼进行重新规制。但法官在最新的案例中对新规定的解释裁判仍不清晰，包括对派生诉讼程序的混淆、具体标准的不确定，如善意、替代救济方式等，甚至在很多规则上仍借助于普通法的解释，派生诉讼的发展趋势依然离不开普通法的规则。     

When politics prevails: Parties,elections and loyalty in the European Parliament

In many political systems, legislators serve multiple principals who compete for their loyalty in legislative votes. This article explores the political conditions under which legislators choose between their competing principals in multilevel systems, with a focus on how election proximity shapes legislative behaviour across democratic arenas. Empirically, the effect of electoral cycles on national party delegations’ ‘collective disloyalty’ with their political groups in the European Parliament (EP) is analysed. It is argued that election proximity changes the time horizons, political incentives and risk perceptions of both delegations and their principals, ‘punctuating’ cost‐benefit calculations around defection as well as around controlling, sanctioning and accommodating. Under the shadow of elections, national delegations’ collective disloyalty with their transnational groups should, therefore, increase. Using a new dataset with roll‐call votes cast under legislative codecision by delegations between July 1999 and July 2014, the article shows that the proximity of planned national and European elections drives up disloyalty in the EP, particularly by delegations from member states with party‐centred electoral rules. The results also support a ‘politicisation’ effect: overall, delegations become more loyal over time, but the impact of election proximity as a driver of disloyalty is strongest in the latest parliament analysed (i.e., 2009–2014). Furthermore, disloyalty is more likely in votes on contested and salient legislation, and under conditions of Euroscepticism; by contrast, disloyalty is less likely in votes on codification files, when a delegation holds the rapporteurship and when the national party participates in government. The analysis sheds new light on electoral politics as a determinant of legislative choice under competing principals, and on the conditions under which politics ‘travels’ across democratic arenas in the European Union's multilevel polity.     

Still better together? Purpose and power in intergovernmental councils in the UK

ABSTRACT

Intergovernmental relations in the United Kingdom were intended to be predominantly informal, but a machinery of intergovernmental councils (IGCs) developed alongside informal relations. This article examines the development, purpose and dynamics of the UK’s IGCs, with a particular focus on the multilateral Joint Ministerial Committee and the bilateral Joint Exchequer Committees. These IGCs remain weakly institutionalized and multilateral forums, in particular, are regarded by the devolved governments as providing limited opportunities for exercising influence. By contrast, bilateral IGCs have enabled devolved governments to utilize a range of non-constitutional resources to exert influence, irrespective of their relative constitutional weakness. The Brexit referendum generated an intensification of multilateral IGCs while exposing their weaknesses as forums for the exercise of shared rule. The purpose and dynamics within IGCs are shaped by the asymmetrical distribution of power, continued constitutional hierarchy, party competition and competing nationalist projects.     

An indirect legitimacy argument for a directly elected European Parliament

Can a directly elected European Parliament help deliver standards by which the European Union can be indirectly legitimated through its component national democracies? This article argues that the Union can be indirectly legitimate where it helps member state democracies meet their own obligations to their own publics. The Union can do just that by managing externalities in ways needed to secure core values of justice, democracy and freedom from arbitrary domination within member states. Yet that poses a predicament: for if any one member state has an interest in imposing negative externalities or in freeriding on positive externalities provided by another, then so may its voters and democratic institutions. The article argues a directly elected European Parliament can help manage that predicament both by identifying externalities and by ensuring their regulation meets standards of public control, political equality and justification owed to individual national democracies.     

战后日本“重返”东南亚与英国的应对

二战后,英国政府不希望日本经济复苏过快,并且不愿看到日本经济过多地染指东南亚。1954年英国促成日本加入由它倡导的科伦坡计划,以便把日本在东南亚的活动尽量纳入其可控范围之内。除此以外,在50年代和60年代前期,英国对日本在东南亚的企图进行了重重阻挠。但是进入60年代中后期,随着日本的经济飞速发展,国力日渐增强,英国已无力阻止日本进入东南亚。英国在日英首脑会晤的场合,不断敦促日本加强对东南亚国家的援助,而日本却一再敦促英国维持在东南亚的军事存在。     

Is local authority procurement supporting SMEs? An analysis of practice in English local authorities

The UK coalition government wishes to improve the access of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to public procurement, in recognition of their importance to the economy and for the benefits they can bring to public procurement and the wider public sector. Local government provides a significant opportunity for small firms, spending £84 billion of the total procurement spend of £230 billion. However, about two-thirds of both small businesses and local authorities think that SMEs face barriers in successfully accessing public procurement. This paper examines how councils are supporting SMEs in the procurement process by analysing 67 entry forms to the ‘Best Councils to do business with’ competition. This unique data source has provided insight into councils’ attitudes and procurement practices, and demonstrates that although a wide range of supportive actions are being employed there is considerable diversity across councils. Ambiguities and tensions in policies, between local and central government, have also emerged.     

UK development policy and domestic politics 1997–2016

Debate surrounds the relative importance of development aid and development policy in donor efforts to support international development. Likewise, the literature on UK development policy points to its putative stability and consistency over time. Both perspectives, however, underplay the political contention which characterises UK development policy and its variable effects. This article, therefore, examines UK development policy between 1997 and 2016 and the varying extent to which it gave rise to contentious politics over time. It explores three politically-significant periods in the context of UK development policy between 1997 and 2016: the first between 1997 and 2003, characterised, I argue, by political consensus and managed contention; a second between 2003 and 2010, characterised by transition and emerging political contention; and a third, between 2010 and 2016, characterised by contentious politics and political fracturing. I associate the first period with effective political vision and direction and the third with a significant erosion of both, to the detriment of UK development policy and its efficacy. In conclusion, I argue that UK development policy has been most effective when it has been underpinned by a clear and consensual political vision.     

英国公用事业的民营化改革及其经验教训

英国公用事业的民营化改革具有深刻的经济、政治原因,英国采取了多种民营化形式,并取得了一定的成效;英国民营化后建立了由政府管制立法、执法和社会监督组成的管制框架;英国民营化改革的经验教训是多方面的,其中包括:法律制度是公用事业民营化改革的准则,政企分离是公用事业民营化改革的关键,竞争是提高公用事业经济效率的根本途径,有效竞争是制定公用事业管制政策的目标导向,政府应按照经济原理制定公用事业的管制价格。     

英国的警察投诉机制

21世纪警务活动的突出特点是人权理论在警务工作中的应用,为适应形势发展变化的需要,英格兰和威尔士,苏格兰,以及北爱尔兰先后进行了警察投诉管理体制的重大改革.北爱尔兰首先于1998年成立独立于当地警察机关的具有类似于警察机关权力的"警察监察署",负责调查当地的警察投诉案件.英格兰和威尔士于2004年成立类似于北爱尔兰"警察监察署"的"独立警察投诉委员会".苏格兰目前仍然由首席警官负责处理对于其所辖警区内警察的投诉,但是一系列变革正在酝酿之中,预计2006年下半年有望出台相关草案.     

浅析西方议会的财政权及对完善我国人大监督制度的启示

西方各国议会的财政权是议会监督制约政府施政行为的有效手段之一，议会拥有这项权力有着，深厚的理论基础。其内容主要包括征税、预算权和决算权，我国人大及其常委会也拥有此项职权，但是还需进一步完善，使之成为人大监督政府的一把利剑。