期货欺诈行为立法比较

期货欺诈行为使投资者对期货市场丧失信心,使市场经济中公平、诚信的价值取向受到极大的破坏,而我国现行刑法对于期货欺诈行为没有作出单独、详尽的规定。就目前期货欺诈行为的状况而言,对其采取相应的刑罚手段予以制裁刻不容缓。     

近期刑法热点问题的思考

“银广夏做假事件”、“裁判黑哨事件”以及“硫酸伤熊事件”所折射出的问题,也是我国目前法制建设极为关注的问题。本文通过法理分析,指出“银广夏做假事件”的实质在于有法不依,以至使证券市场遭受了不应有的损害;而“裁判黑哨事件”的关键在于我国法律尚有不完善之处;而“硫酸伤熊事件”就其行为性质而言,可以认定为毁坏公私财物的行为,但能够唤起的整个社会的人文关怀远远超出了对个案的如何处理。     

论诉讼欺诈之刑法调整

诉讼欺诈是指在民事诉讼中,当事人以提供虚假陈述并伪造证据或串通证人提供伪证的方法,使裁判机关作出有利于自己的裁判,从而使自己或与自己有关联的人从对方得到财物或财产性利益的行为。我国刑法没有规定诉讼欺诈罪,而诈骗罪、帮助伪造证据罪、妨害清算罪等现行罪名和民事诉讼法规定的妨害民事诉讼惩诫措施等均不能对诉讼欺诈进行完全调整。我国刑法应增立诉讼欺诈罪,以保护裁判机关的正常裁判活动和他人的财物所有权或财产性利益。     

论合同诈骗罪的合同

合同诈骗罪的合同是指被犯罪行为人利用,以骗取他人财物,而且扰乱市场秩序的合同。它是刑法意义上的合同,是以财产为内容的、体现了合同当事人之间财产关系的财产合同。合同诈骗罪合同的外延包括大部分存在于市场活动中的民事合同、劳动合同,口头形式等非书面形式合同也可以成为合同诈骗罪的合同;行政合同不能成为合同诈骗罪的合同。     

金融诈骗犯罪若干问题探析

本文就金融诈骗罪存在的若干疑难问题进行了探讨 ,对金融诈骗罪的主观目的、罪数形态、犯罪数额和共犯形态等问题提出了自己的观点和认识。     

Fabricating votes for Putin: new tests of fraud and electoral manipulations from Russia

We extend the “fraud forensics” research to systematically explain precinct-level and regional variations in electoral manipulations in Russia’s March 2012 presidential election. Parametric last-digit frequency tests (a multivariate extension of last-digit tests) are employed to analyze fraud heterogeneity during the vote count stage. We also utilize author-assembled data harvested from the election monitoring non-governmental organization Golos’s regional reports of misconduct to explore the co-variance of last-digit fraud with other irregularities extending beyond the falsification of electoral records. We find that while higher regional education levels positively correlate with exposure of electoral malpractice, an educated populace may also incentivize regional officials to channel misconduct toward election-day fraud – perhaps because pre-electoral manipulations would be more visible to the public than tampering with ballots, and thus, more vulnerable to exposure. Furthermore, last-digit fraud is associated with (a) fake turnout counts; (b) fake votes disproportionally benefitting Putin; and (c) vote “re-distribution” whereby votes cast for some candidates are systematically miscounted. We also find that citizen reports of election-day misconduct are positively correlated with our region-specific last-digit fraud measures. The results indicate that reports by independent observers of sub-national electoral irregularities could be employed as reasonably reliable indicators of fraud, and could be utilized alongside other data to ascertain the incidence of misconduct in Russia and other settings.     

How Affordable Is HUD Affordable Housing?

This article assesses the affordability of U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) rental assistance properties from the perspective of transportation costs. HUD housing is, by definition, affordable from the standpoint of housing costs due to limits on the amounts renters are required to pay. However, there are no such limitations on transportation costs, and common sense suggests that renters in remote locations may be forced to pay more than 15% of income, a nominal affordability standard, for transportation costs. Using household travel models estimated with data from 15 diverse regions around the United States, we estimated and summed automobile capital costs, automobile operating costs, and transit fare costs for households at 8,857 HUD rental assistance properties. The mean percentage of income expended on transportation is 15% for households at the high end of the eligible income scale. However, in highly sprawling metropolitan areas, and in suburban areas of more compact metropolitan areas, much higher percentages of households exceed the 15% ceiling. This suggests that locational characteristics of properties should be considered for renewal when HUD contracts expire for these properties, based on location and hence on transportation affordability.     

Addressing the Affordable Housing Crisis for Vulnerable Renters: Insights From Broward County on an Affordable Housing Acquisition Tool

South Florida is experiencing an affordable rental crisis that is especially burdensome on those most vulnerable in society, low-income households. Rapid urbanization has resulted in inequitable land-use patterns that are a barrier to housing for the poor. As a solution to the crisis, local housing agencies seek to expand their affordable housing stock for vulnerable renters in opportunity-rich neighborhoods, but there is no standard framework for identifying properties for acquisition. Broward County serves as a case study to develop a housing acquisition tool. Using a combination of spatial statistics and principal components analysis, neighborhoods in which housing agencies may consider acquiring property are identified through the creation of an affordability surface in ArcGIS. Affordability is overlain by an opportunity surface derived from neighborhood quality and accessibility rankings. The results identify neighborhoods in Broward County that are both affordable and opportunity-rich, to better serve the county's most vulnerable renters.     

Careless with Our Democracy: Group Think and Voting Reform

The Representation of the People Act 2000 introduced what has come to be known as 'voting on demand'. In the process it paved the way for an absentee ballot system in Britain that would, in the words of the judge who heard two extraordinary electoral fraud cases in Birmingham in February and March 2005, disgrace a banana republic. Flaws in the policy making process that preceded the largely uncritical acceptance of universal access to postal votes were also exposed by failures to respond quickly to allegations of fraud and to detailed Electoral Commission recommendations aimed at improving ballot security. These failures raise serious questions about the prevalence of 'group think' in Whitehall and Westminster. The narrowness of Labour's General Election victory in votes, though not in seats, means that doubts about the integrity of Britain's voting arrangements threaten to reinforce a general loss of confidence in British politics.     

论诚信原则与诉讼欺诈的法律规制

在诉讼法中确立“诚信原则”是对当事人主义诉讼模式过头之势的克服,也是支撑整个社会诚信价值的根基。诉讼欺诈以欺诈公权方式危害维护诚信价值根基的司法体系,具有特殊的社会危害性,应当作为一种相对独立的规制对象,构建诉讼法、侵权法、刑法三层立体的法律规则体系,以有效遏制诉讼欺诈现象的发生。