Global dollar standard: challenges for Asian financial integration

Current international financial system is characterized by the global dollar standard where the US dollar plays an essential role in many aspects of international usages. This is particularly the case in Asia where the dollar remains as a major reserve, vehicle and anchor currency. The paper deals with the challenges of dollar over-reliance in the world in general and in Asia in particular, with emphasis on the fact that Asia being a creditor to the US has to cope with the problems and instability that the dollar standard brings about. Asia needs to have further regional financial integration and to strengthen regional financial cooperation supported by a strong institutional arrangement, a sound regional financial market and a collective regional monetary regime.

我国目前不宜全面引入辩诉交易制度

辩诉交易一直以来被广泛讨论 ,在实践中也有少量案件开始采用辩诉交易的方式结案。通过分析美国辩诉交易发展的内在原因和我国的现状 ,认为我国不宜全面引入辩诉交易制度。     

美国性骚扰法律制度及其借鉴意义

性骚扰是不受欢迎的带有性色彩的言行,是一种非法的性歧视。依美国判例,性骚扰不必源于性的目的,其内容不必是直接的表示;同时,性骚扰行为者在主观上应当是有过错的,受害者在主观上须为不欢迎骚扰行为。构成可诉的性骚扰行为其损害后果须达到严重的程度。依美国最新判例,同性之间也可以构成性骚扰;雇主对员工中的上级职员的性骚扰行为承担民事责任。美国的性骚扰法律制度对我国的立法具有一定的借鉴意义,如公法上的规定并不排除私法的适用,性骚扰的含义应当包含性别歧视,雇主责任应当在立法上得以确立,立法者应当在道德规范和法律规范中寻找平衡点。     

论淫秽物品犯罪的惩罚根据与认定标准——走出法益理论一元论的独断

在我国有关淫秽物品的刑事立法中，无论是道德主义、家长主义、自由主义还是女权主义，仅凭一己之力都无法解释复杂的立法现象，多元主义具有相对的合理性。有关淫秽物品的刑事立法是在冒犯原则的基础上考虑禁止剥削理论和软家长主义，法益理论中的损害原则无法为立法提供合理的说明。淫秽物品具有诲淫性的正向特征，没有科学价值或艺术价值的反向特征，这两个正反特征都应主要根据冒犯原则进行理解。     

Accommodating toleration: on Balint’s classical liberal response to the multiculturalism challenge

ABSTRACT

Peter Balint identifies three challenges to toleration, one of which is the multiculturalism challenge. This is the charge that liberal toleration fails to accommodate minorities adequately, which requires positive recognition rather than negative toleration. I discuss his response to the multiculturalism challenge and its connection to a classical liberal view of toleration. This involves Balint’s claim that liberal neutrality should be understood as reflective and ‘difference-sensitive’, which should be realised by the state being ‘hands-off’ in the sense of withdrawing support for privileged ways of life. I argue that Balint’s classical liberal view that the state needs to be ‘hands-off’ is in need of specification and that it does not fit well with his claim that neutrality needs to be reflective and difference-sensitive.     

The simplicity of toleration

ABSTRACT

Toleration is one of the core elements of a liberal polity, and yet it has come to be seen as puzzling, paradoxical and difficult. The aim of the present paper is to dispel three puzzles surrounding toleration. First, I will challenge the notion that it is difficult to see why tolerance should be a virtue given that it involves putting up with what one deems wrong. Second, I defuse the worry that the ideal of toleration is not fully realizable as toleration must necessarily be limited. Third, I take issue with the assumption that ‘true’ tolerance requires meta-tolerance, that is, that the issue of toleration must itself be approached in a ‘tolerant’ way.     

Trump and the End of an Era? The Liberal International Order in Perspective

ABSTRACT

The liberal international economic and political order which the United States created from the ashes of World War II and has since led is in trouble. To United States President Donald Trump, the order which provided the framework under which sovereign states agreed to follow a rules-based system of economic and political cooperation and shared multilateral governance, has not only allowed other nations (in particular, China) to take advantage of US ‘magnanimity’, but also weakened the United States economically, while asymmetric alliances compromised its military advantages. Given the sustained assault this cosmopolitan order is facing, many fear that it may not survive if Trump is re-elected in November 2020. Indeed, if the United States response to the COVID-19 pandemic is any guide, an ‘America First’ agenda, especially a hard-line approach to China, will shape US policy if Trump wins a second term.     

Toleration and modus vivendi

ABSTRACT

This paper seeks to explore some connections between the ideas of toleration and modus vivendi, principally through a critical engagement with the work of John Gray. In particular, it argues that while Gray is right to see a connection between modus vivendi and a particular conception of toleration (here referred to as the ‘traditional conception’) it is both problematic and potentially confusing to tie either of these ideas, as he does, to a theory of value-pluralism. Instead, they should be viewed as distinct but partially overlapping and often mutually supportive ideas, the relevance of which are best explained in terms of the need or desire of people to live together under conditions of conflict about the worth of different ways of life, and motivated by a variety of pragmatic and principled concerns. The paper also offers a modest defence of the traditional conception of toleration against some of its critics, arguing that such a practice of toleration, if supported by a modus vivendi, can provide a peaceable means of accommodating differences in a way that is broadly accepted, although neither ideal nor necessarily uncontested, by both tolerators and the tolerated.     

“自由”与“不自由”:高科技跨国公司的政治化与国家化

由于高科技或新技术本身具有一定的公共产品特性,并且决定着一个国家的综合国力,因此高科技的发展与一国内部政治及国家间竞争的关联度逐渐加大。一方面,企业利益进一步与国家利益重合,高科技跨国公司在开展跨国业务时愈发受到母国与东道国“政治正确”的规制;另一方面,在逆全球化背景下,国家对技术的理解形成了较为明确的技术主权观念,高科技跨国公司与母国之间的“捆绑”由此亦愈发明显。在此背景下,随着西方排他性技术同盟的形成,非西方的高科技跨国企业遭受打压的态势在中短期内并不会缓解,国家间、企业间的技术合作将极大受阻,全球技术进步的成本和门槛也将因此显著提升,最终影响人类的整体利益。对中国而言,一方面,要继续扩大开放,坚持技术多边主义,积极推动跨国技术合作;另一方面,仍需凸显技术进步过程中的国家角色,建构国家引导下的以高科技跨国企业为主体的技术创新体系,最终实现关键核心技术的自主可控。     

Representation and district magnitude in plurality systems

Despite the widely accepted theoretical prediction that high district magnitudes should yield less proportional results in plurality systems, empirical evidence is surprisingly mixed. We argue that these mixed results are ultimately due to a lack of clarity about the counterfactual being considered. We use a simple model to show that an increase in district magnitude reduces expected proportionality in a plurality system only if it is accompanied by a reduction in the number of districts. This conditional prediction helps to explain the diversity of existing findings and is consistent with our own analysis of both U.S. congressional delegations and local councils in Britain.