A New Barometer for the Evolution of Multilateral Counterterrorism: Introduction to the Materials,Methods, and Results of the UN Security Council and Terrorism Dataset (UNSC-TDS)

There is a general tendency among analysts to treat the activity of the United Nations Security Council as a barometer for measuring the evolution of global security issues. However, despite the Council's central role in multilateral counterterrorism since 9/11, there exists no comprehensive and coherent empirical measurement of its activity on terrorism. This research gap has resulted in contradictory assessments concerning the beginning, the regularity, and the consistency of the Council's activity on terrorism. In an effort to introduce more academic rigor to terrorism studies, researchers need to systematically address this deficit. This article makes a fundamental contribution by introducing a new dataset, the UN Security Council and Terrorism Dataset. It outlines the problems of previously available data and specifies the materials and methods used for the creation of the dataset. It continues by presenting key results from this unprecedented data collection effort and illustrates general trends in the Council's activity on terrorism. Based on this extensive empirical research, it finds that the UN Security Council's activity on terrorism has evolved more regularly and consistently since 1946 than previously thought. This conclusion indicates new directions for future research.     

Free software production as critical social practice

Abstract

This paper analyses the phenomenon of free and open source software (FOSS) in the light of Luc Boltanski and Ève Chiapello's The new spirit of capitalism. It argues that collaborative FOSS production by volunteer software developers is a species of critical social practice in Boltanski and Chiapello's sense: rooted in resistance to capitalist social relations, and yet also a source of values that justify the new routes to profitability associated with contemporary network capitalism. Advanced via collective projects that are sustained by hacker norms and privately legislated ‘copyleft’ law, the FOSS ethos is apparently antithetical to private property-based accumulation. Yet it can be shown to embody the ‘new spirit of capitalism’ in its most distilled form; moreover FOSS developers have instituted new forms of property and new modes of profit creation around software that are in the process of being adapted for use in other economic sectors. Meanwhile, the private law constraints on profit-seeking that have emerged from the FOSS movement are counteracting some of the social pathologies that accompany network capitalism only to consolidate others. The paper concludes by identifying likely bases for a renewal of critique given these realities.     

论作为民法法源的“法理”

我国《民法典》第10条未将“法理”规定为第三位阶的法源。在理论上,除少数学者反对设立第三顺位法源外,多数学者赞同规定第三顺位法源,惟对其原因基本未详尽展开。无论是从法源条款的性质、使法源条款真正具有实益、为法律“续造”提供合法性基础的角度来看,还是从《民法典》已赋予法官较广泛司法权、我国民事法官依“法理”填补法律漏洞成为较为普遍的现实来看,抑或从发挥法理的“学科沟通功能”来看,确立第三顺位法源均有其必要性。从立法技术来看,将第三顺位法源表述为“民法基本原则”并非最优,仍以“法理”的表述为宜,因为“法理”的内涵与外延比“(民法)基本原则”更为丰富。除民法基本原则外,“法理”可能是非属民法基本原则范畴的民法基本原理、未明定的民法原则;此外,“法理”也可能是制定法乃至习惯法上的法律原则。     

Illuminating the benefits and limitations of forensic light sources

Forensic light sources, such as a Crime-lite, are used in forensic laboratories and by police staff in the examination for, and detection of, biological material. Whilst the benefits of using forensic light sources are relatively well understood, their limitations are less-so. This report details the outcome of studies, validation and review by three forensic laboratories, as well as three case examples, to highlight both the strengths and weaknesses of the tested forensic light sources and to demonstrate that, whilst a useful preliminary screening tool, they should not be used in isolation without subsequent presumptive chemical testing. False positives and negatives are common, and the background substrate and specific biological material present can have a significant effect on the outcome of examination when using a forensic light source.     

以立法与司法的良性互动促进司法公信力的提升

提升司法公信力需要立法与司法的良性互动,这要求加强三方面的工作：一是努力提高立法的科学性,为提升司法公信力奠定基础;二是努力降低立法滞后性给提升司法公信力带来的不良影响;三是努力应对法律变动给提升司法公信力带来的挑战。     

涉检舆情的应对与引导

随着互联网在全球范围内的飞速发展,网络已成为反应社情民意的主要渠道。因应对引导不力而引发的涉检网络舆情危机事件时有发生,不断冲击着检察机关的自身形象和执法公信力。应转变观念,强化检务公开,完善网络舆情工作体系,营造正面舆论强势。     

提升检察机关执法公信力的路径

检察机关作为国家宪法赋予职权的法律监督机关,能否在实际工作中履行好监督职能、有效化解社会矛盾,是促进和巩固执法公信力的原因和动力。提升检察机关执法公信力的路径,主包括三个层面：日常执法活动的规范化、涉检突发新闻事件的合理应对、公信力理念的强化及相关制度的完善。     

生命权对立下紧急避险存在的空间

紧急避险是人们熟悉的一项排除犯罪的事由,但关于生命能否作为避险客体尚不能达成一致意见。我国采取法益衡量的观点,其认为生命的价值大于其他任何的法益,所以生命不能作为紧急避险的客体。但此观点有些过于绝对,本文主要是针对生命权避险问题所引发的思考,进行一些相应的分析从而提出我的观点。     

制度信用:执法公信力建设的关键

执法公信力建设的根本目标是提高执法美誉度,直接目标是建立执法制度信用,基础是促进公众知情与参与,前提是权力控制。在社会多元化与法治建设背景下,制度信任是维系社会成员之间、政府与公众之间信用关系的前提。除了结果正义、执法效率之外,执法主体还应重视制度信用的基础性作用,建立程序正义与权力可责的执法制度。