(Im)possible citizens: Canada's ‘citizenship bonanza’ and its boundaries

This article discusses a recent amendment to the Canadian Citizenship Act, which retroactively restores or gives Canadian citizenship to ‘hundreds of thousands of unsuspecting foreigners, most of them Americans’ (P. Dvorak, 2009. Canada issues a wake-up call: you may be a citizen. The Wall Street Journal, 17 April. Available from: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123993183347727843.html) while also restricting the inheritance of Canadian citizenship to the first-generation born abroad. Aiming to redress past discriminations based on gender, marital status and dual citizenship while simultaneously curtailing modern citizenship's dubious ius sanguinis provision, the new law might be interpreted as perpetuating Canada's reputation as a world leader in interethnic relations and human rights. A contextual analysis of the new law, by contrast, shows that the opposite is the case: the boundaries that are being drawn by Canada's new citizenship regime follow the now common trend of re-ethnicization and securitization. Specifically, they conflate kinship and Whiteness, thereby leading, on the one hand, to the construction of possible citizens whose authenticity and loyalty to the nation are unquestioned. On the other hand, within the logic of the new laws and their surrounding discourses, non-White, non-Christian ‘impossible citizens’ emerge, whose lack of loyalty and instrumental use of their Canadian passport are said to be eroding the value of citizenship from within.     

Culture or taxes? The conceptions of citizenship of migrants and local factory workers in Italy

A number of studies of everyday citizenship have shown that the way in which the ordinary population of a state thinks of citizenship is not unilaterally determined by the conceptions present in state's citizenship law. This work looks at what migrants and local factory workers in Ferrara (Northern Italy) think of citizenship, and what conceptions can be found behind their opinions. The research is based on 60 in-depth interviews with migrants of different origins and professions and local factory workers. While scholars consider the Italian citizenship law to be closed towards both the immigrants and those born in Italy from non-citizens, most of the interviewees have expressed the preference for the ius soli and shorter residence requirements. Almost all the interviewees believed that people with a penal record should not be naturalised, and some of the interviewees have expressed cultural conceptions of citizenship that could be demanding of the candidates. However, the stronger consensus was for a lighter, economic conception of the citizen as anyone who works and pays taxes.     

Speaking through the body: detention and bodily resistance in Italy

This work reflects on the character of the modalities that non-status migrants are deploying in the context of current politics of the camp, with special attention to the Italian context. It will suggest that once the possibilities of dissent through the voice (the political tool par excellence in a liberal democracy, and one associated primarily with rationality and the capacity for reason) are foreclosed, migrants tend to resort to another powerful tool: their own body. Detainees have made their bodies speak by resorting to practices of self-mutilation, hunger strike, suicide attempts, and lips and eyes sewing. Detainees' violent acts of dissent are not dissimilar from the violent modalities used, a few centuries earlier, by some enslaved people who chose liberty through death. The aim is not so much to make comparison between the two figures, but to emphasise the way in which, under conditions of extreme control, subjugation or unfreedom, acts of dissent and resistance – and thus acts of politics, as articulated in Rancière's concept of dissensus – are not necessarily enacted through democratic practices but, on the contrary, through whatever modalities are available to them, including violent (self-harm) modalities.     

实践与科学中的监狱学理论研究——读《监狱学导论》

监狱学是刑罚执行研究领域的一个重要组成部分。一段时间以来,我国监狱学研究出现了低谷,却不能因此而说明监狱学研究之花已凋谢。吴宗宪教授的《监狱学导论》一书即是一个例证。该书以其特有的研究风格、知识体系为我国当代监狱学研究与监狱学知识的整体构造树立了一个典范,同时也昭示着监狱学研究将会得到持续发展与开拓。     

论我国涉恐资产冻结法律制度之发展性思考

涉恐资产冻结是金融反恐的重要组成部分,对于防治恐怖活动犯罪具有重大意义。随着反恐法治的逐步完善,我国确立了以金融制裁为目的的涉恐资产冻结制度。相关法律对涉恐资产、金融机构等概念进行了精细化的界定,明确了相关主体的法律责任,遵守了正当程序的相关要求并且注重加强国际合作。但是,我国涉恐资产冻结法律应当进一步注重相关法律制度之间的衔接,协调好涉恐资产冻结与其他保全措施之间的关系,同时应当注重涉恐资产冻结中的权利保障,以便有效地防治恐怖活动犯罪。     

可辩驳思维与法治的可能性

法律中的可辩驳思维,是不同于演绎性思维、归纳性思维与类比性思维的新型思维方式,是具有规则性、主体间性的对话、交流、辩论与反驳的思维过程。可辩驳性是法律知识逻辑结构的本质属性,法律中的可辩驳思维在根本上是以法律的可辩驳性为基本前提的。可辩驳思维对"法治可能性"的证成,在微观、中观和宏观上均具有重要的理论意义和实践价值。法律中的可辩驳思维在本质上并不必然导致法治的不可能性,相反在合理把握的基础上,可辩驳思维一定程度上能提升法治的可能性。     

Participation,Dialogue, and Civic Engagement: Understanding the Role of Organized Civil Society in Promoting Active Citizenship in the European Union

Abstract

This article looks at current policies concerning the civic and political participation of youths, women, migrants, and minorities in the European Union. It highlights the ways in which active citizenship and civic engagement have become a political priority for European institutions. Representation of local policy actors at the supranational level and strategies for the inclusion of civil society provide a platform for evaluating the impact of Europeanization at the national and subnational level. The article focuses on key discourses and narratives associated with specific policy frames (e.g. European citizenship, European social policies, and the European public sphere (EPS)). Some of the key questions addressed by the article are: What are the strategies that are employed, both by the European institutions in Brussels and organized civil society (OCS), to enhance participation and reciprocal communication? What vision of governance do practices such as active engagement and civil dialogue represent? Drawing on current theories of governance, our article contributes to the debate about the EPS by evaluating the role of OCS in bridging the gap between European institutions and national polities. Equally, our focus on traditionally marginal groups provides a platform for assessing the institutionalization of the ‘European social dimension’.     

论债之对外效力的表现

债之效力区分为对内效力与对外效力。对外效力是对债之关系当事人之外的第三人所产生的效力。一般情况下债权仅在当事人之间发生拘束力,但为了保障债权的实现,在特殊情况下法律对合同相对性予以突破。债的对外效力的表现主要包括:债权的保全,债权的物权化,第三人侵害债权,涉他合同。     

论我国刑事证人出庭作证存在的问题及完善

刑事证人出庭是英美法系、大陆法系刑事诉讼程序的应有之义。虽然我国新修订的刑事诉讼法确立并完善了刑事证人出庭制度,但还存在着诸多亟须解决的问题。完善我国刑事证人出庭制度应厘清证人资格、界定关键证人的范围、出庭程序等基本概念,并完善证人拒证范围等豁免制度,细化证人保护制度、证人补偿制度等附随制度。     

涉林渎职犯罪“情节特别严重”标准探究——从经济损失的角度入手

罪刑相适应原则是刑法的基本原则,然而在具体的制度中常常存在量化标准的缺位。在涉林渎职犯罪中,已经明确将以违法发放林木采伐许可证之外的其他方式作为的渎职犯罪,定性为滥用职权罪或玩忽职守罪,但对于该类犯罪"情节特别严重"等升格量刑的标准,仍存在立法和解释上的不足,导致量刑畸轻,同类犯罪易发、多发。量刑标准的确立应综合考虑行为的社会危害性、侵害法益的差异性、立法技术的统一性等多重因素,在此基础上可推之,涉林渎职犯罪"情节特别严重"的认定宜遵循现有司法解释对渎职犯罪升格量刑的一般规律,将其确立在立案标准的5倍以上为宜。