Judiciaries as crucial actors in Southern regulatory systems: A case study of Indian telecom regulation

This article addresses regulatory reforms in the Indian telecommunications sector and emphasizes the role of the Indian judiciary. Our claim is that when confronted with a series of disputes relating to the nascent telecom regulatory landscape, the Supreme Court of India sought to make a constructive contribution to both the actual disputes as well as the overall regulatory framework. Our reading of these cases suggests that in the sphere of telecom, the Supreme Court has been less interested in stamping its own authority on issues, and has instead sought to bolster the authority and legitimacy of the recently constituted telecom regulatory institutions. We seek to draw attention to the role of the Indian judiciary as marking an exceptional feature of evolving regulatory systems in the Global South. Conventional wisdom in the regulatory jurisprudence that has evolved in the Global North suggests that judiciaries should have little or no role to play in regulatory systems. We suggest that to overcome the special challenges that regulatory systems in the Global South confront, more established institutions and actors might have to lend credibility and legitimacy to enable nascent regulatory actors to develop over time. At least in the Indian case, this is one way to understand the Indian judiciary's interventionist actions in the sphere of telecom regulation.     

The political economy of regulatory change: The case of British merger control

This article aims to explain the broader evolution of British merger control. To this end it outlines a novel critical political economy perspective on regulation and regulatory change which differs from established political economy approaches, such as the regulatory capitalism/state perspectives, in three main ways: it places regulatory ideas at the heart of the analysis, it differentiates between different degrees of regulatory change, and it links regulatory change in delineated issue areas with changing power balances between fractions of capital and labor. The application of this perspective to the analysis of the evolution of British merger control provides some important new insights, most notably that the content, form, and scope of merger control in Britain have been deeply transformed in accordance with neoliberal ideas since the 1980s and that this process, which was part of a broader regulatory and ideational shift, was premised on the ascendancy of transnational capital.     

Institutional shrinkage: The deviant case of Swiss banking secrecy

Using the Mahoney–Thelen causal model one would expect “layering” to be the dominant kind of institutional change affecting Swiss banking secrecy. Our research into governance in Swiss banking shows that it does not fit this theoretical model. Applying deviant case analysis we have refined our understanding of institutional change. We argue that the removal of rules and the momentum of pressure should be acknowledged when explaining variations of institutional change and we suggest that the processes of shrinkage should not be ignored.     

The Multiple Domains of Harmonisation: Politics,Policy, Process and Program

This article builds a taxonomy of the different functions performed by the term ‘harmonisation’ in contemporary policy debates. Four broad functions or domains of use are identified – political, policy, process and program – within each of which there are multiple different uses. Based on this classification, the article then develops a multi‐dimensional conceptual framework through which the term can be better understood and examined, its political uses identified and isolated, and harmonisation initiatives constructed, framed and analysed. The framework should prove useful for Ministers and government departments called upon to determine if, how and to what extent to harmonise regulations in a particular area; regulators called upon to administer and enforce harmonised regulatory regimes; and regulatees, practitioners and academics concerned to understand the impact of a harmonisation task.     

顶岗实习的法律调整及其完善

我国现行的法律法规并未对顶岗实习行为特别是未对实习学生的权益保护作出统一、明确的规定。现有规定存在缺乏针对性、效力层级低、倾斜保护和社会保障功能缺失等瑕疵,无法对顶岗实习起到实际的调整作用,并难以为学生提供有效的法律保护。因此,需要对现有的相关法律法规加以健全和完善,以利于顶岗实习学生权益的保护和顶岗实习工作的有序开展。     

经济法视域中的软法规范刍议

随着世界范围内国家管理的衰落与公共治理的兴起,将法分为硬法和软法两种基本形式并非没有根据,对软法规范的研究也日益引起学界的浓厚兴趣。事实上,经济法作为一种回应型法,软法规范大量存在并具有非国家强制性、创制方式的弹性与民主性、非司法中心主义、法律位阶的非层次性等特点,使得其与经济法视域中的硬法规范区别开来。同时它与经济法视域中的硬法规范相得益彰,共同规范和调整着经济法关系。但软法规范的缺陷也是极其明显的,软法的泛化不利于法治社会的构建。为此,有必要将软法规范赋予硬法的某些特征使软法朝着硬法化方向转化;增强某些软法规范的刚性使其朝着可诉化方向迈进。     

房地产的财税法调控研究

对房地产调控的税收措施相对比较完善,但"土地财政"却消解了部分税收调控作用。要改革财政体制,在体制内增强地方财力,改变地方对"土地财政"的依赖,取消对个人自住房产免纳房产税的规定,强化土地增税清算、完善并严格执行"二手房"交易相关税收政策,降低房产交易价格,抑制投机购房,发挥财税制度对房地产的调控作用。     

市场规制中的执法权冲突及其解决路径

清晰的执法权配置是提高市场规制质量的首要条件。在我国竞争法实施过程中,频繁发生的执法权冲突现象严重影响着市场规制的质量。如何解决执法权冲突,是一个兼具理论和实践意义的课题。从程序主义视角,国务院相关部委和最高人民法院都难以从根本上解决这一）中突,只有全国人大常委会及其授权立法机构才是最合适的裁决者。从实体主义视角,构建公权力的横向配置理论才是解决执法权冲突的根本。该理论认为,执法权应当配置给能以最低的管理成本完成管理目标的主体。影响管理成本的核心要素包括规制机构的重置成本、信息获取成本、管制俘获和多元执法机构的协调成本,这些要素所组成的成本衡量体系是配置执法权的一个基本分析框架。     

风险社会的刑法调适——以危险犯的扩张为视角

风险社会的实质是人类在从现代技术手段获益的同时,却无法完全掌控这些手段,陷入对自身行为所可能带来的风险无法预测与控制的境地。风险社会的风险源于人的决策与行为,因此,如何有效管控人的行为,最大限度地规避与控制各种潜在风险,成为人类社会所面临的共同任务。作为社会调控最后手段的刑法也必须针对当前的风险状况及时做出回应。现行刑法基于传统的以实害犯为主的立法模式,无法有效地规制各种风险行为。危险犯的立法设计,特别是抽象危险犯的设置,能够将刑法的保护防线提前,从而达成法益保护的早期化,有利于对社会共同体的安全保障,是应对风险行为的有效处置手段。     

城市拆迁的利益博弈与规制思路

在我国的城市化进程中,城市拆迁实质上是一场艰苦的＂利益博弈＂;从博弈的结果看,有相当一部分被拆迁人的私人利益受到了严重侵害,而假借公共利益之名的政府利益、开发商利益却得以不同程度的增加。城市拆迁已经造成了严重的利益冲突及社会冲突,亟待从根本上予以解决。鉴于政府利益异化、政府角色冲突是引发该问题的主要原因,本文提出了以约束政府不当行为为中心的规制思路,即应充分运用政治及法律手段,对城市拆迁中各级政府滥用公共利益的违法违规行为进行严格约束。