COMPARATIVE STUDY OF INTERNATIONAL CARRIAGE OF GOODS BY RAILWAY BETWEEN CIM AND SMGS

China and some of its trade partners in Western Europe apply different legal regimes for international carriage of goods by railway — respectively Agreement on International Railway Freight Transportation (SMGS) and Uniform Rules Concerning the Contract of International Carriage of Goods by Rail (CIM). For transportation of goods by railway between China and Western Europe both the CIM and the SMGS are often applicable. China’s initiative “the Belt and Road” promotes development of railway transport in Eurasia and creates new incentives for comparative study between those two international legal systems. This article provides a brief historical outline of comparative studies between the CIM and SMGS. This article also purports to show that some similarities and differences between the two regimes might be better understood from the perspective of comparative legal history. Taking into account inter alia the common origin of the current versions of the CIM and SMGS in the 4th revision of the CIM of 1933, differences and similarities between two legal regimes have been analysed with regard to the following topics: the scope of application of the CIM and SMGS; the nature of the carrier’s liability under the CIM and SMGS; exclusivity of the CIM, exclusivity of the contract of carriage under the SMGS; period of responsibility; persons for whom the carrier is liable.     

“Peace propaganda”? the application of Chomsky’s propaganda model to the Daily Nation’s coverage of the 2013 Kenyan elections

This article uses the third and fourth filters of Herman and Chomsky's Propaganda Model, namely, official sources and flak, to examine how the Daily Nation, which is the largest circulating newspaper in Kenya, covered the 2013 Kenyan elections. In the run up to the elections, several institutions, among them the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) of Kenya and the Media Council of Kenya (MCK), organised several workshops with media owners and journalists in the name of “peace journalism” to avoid a repeat of the 2007/2008 post-election violence. Although such efforts paid off because there was no physical post-election violence, questions have been raised as to whether this extensive peace training translated to “peace propaganda” making journalists and the media in general engage in excessive self-censorship in the name of peaceful elections thereby neglecting their watchdog role. Using the findings from a qualitative content analysis of the Daily Nation as a case study and semi-structured interviews with civil society organisations as media monitors, it can be arguably observed that the Daily Nation avoided any “contentious electoral issues” for fear of flak and relied overly on the IEBC and other government agencies as official sources of critical electoral information.     

Inventing terrorists: the nexus of intelligence and Islamophobia

The transatlantic Islamophobia industry, emboldened by US intelligence efforts to entrap Muslims, appears to have helped to increase permissible levels of Islamophobia across the US, as illustrated by the fiery anti-Muslim rhetoric during the 2016 presidential campaign. In this article, I first look at five key leaders of the Islamophobia industry who also claim to be “terrorism experts” and have links to US and Israeli intelligence. I then describe US law enforcement’s mass surveillance of Muslims and its invention of terrorists, including a map of the “successful terrorist prosecutions” claimed by the US Department of Justice, most of which were tried only as criminal cases. Finally, I explore in-depth the case against the Holy Land Foundation, a Muslim charity based in Texas that was run by Palestinian-Americans and targeted by both the state and the Islamophobia industry for its dubious links to “terrorism”, helping to legitimate the Bush W. Administration’s “War on Terror”. I argue that this nexus of intelligence and Islamophobia has empowered anti-Muslim voices that were formerly marginal.     

论“和”文化语境下的国际法治建设

国际秩序建立在国际法律制度基础之上,新格局之下的国际政治经济秩序需要相应的良法善治。以西方宗教文化为精神内核的当代国际法,面对人类当下存在的公共问题,已经难以做出有效应对。构建人类命运共同体之理念正是充分吸取了中国传统“和”文化的有益成分,对现存国际法治基础理论给予了补充和创新,对人类未来国际法治建设给予指导,因为“和”文化完全不同于西方“利”文化,更有助于实现不同文化、文明的和解和共荣。     

Is Catalonia Immune to Racism? An Analysis of Intolerant Political Discourses of Mainstream Party Representatives (2010–2011)

Despite the reduced presence of the far-right in Catalonia, anti-immigrant stances and discourses have occupied a central position during political campaigns for local, autonomous, and national elections in 2010–2011. The Catalan case is based on the analysis of three case studies: the local exclusion from the census of undocumented immigrants by the city of Vic, the campaign of the People's Party candidate in Badalona containing hate speech against Roma, and the burqa bans issued by the city of Lleida. Representatives of mainstream political parties, mainly right wing, became the main exponents of intolerance in Catalonia by putting forward that cultural pluralism and diversity challenge the possibility of living together in society.     

Pyrographies: Photography and the good death

This essay theorizes the ethical potential of photography or what I call “pyrography” by enacting a version of care for death in attending closely to a sort of rehearsal for the deathbed in French photographer and writer Hervé Guibert's photo-novel Suzanne and Louise first published by Gallimard in 1980, the same year as Roland Barthes's famous essay on photography, Camera Lucida. The essay develops the transformative ethical possibilities of and queer political potentialities of pyrography by reading Guibert's project with his two elderly aunts in relation to the work of two of Guibert's intimates: Michel Foucault's “The Social Triumph of the Sexual Will” and Roland Barthes's Camera Lucida and Mourning Diary. In Mourning Diary, Barthes describes the plan for Camera Lucida as an ephemeral monument to his dead mother whose loss he calls, following the last work of psychoanalyst Donald Winnicott: “the catastrophe that has already occurred.” Through its own writing with fire of the death we fear that has already occurred and that we cannot access directly, photography may enable the kind of “as if” work or projective imaginative enactment for which Winnicott calls. This essay put this concept of the photographic pyre or pyrographies to work to characterize a kind of photographic act. Pyrography is a facture of and with the flammable, not of and about the past, but for the present and future. It is a practice of making volatile structures for feeling with the taboo scenes of the conjunction of old age, desire, and death that create spaces not just for mourning the losses that have actually happened. Pyrographies shape spaces in which one might begin to imagine and transact with care the losses and the letting go yet to come. Pyrographies, I am suggesting, trade in the illusions of presence. They give us the catastrophe that has already occurred in palpable form, enabling us to negotiate shame and fear but also desire toward the seemingly impossible: the good death.     

大众地缘政治想象中的身份政治与“他者”形象--以美俄(苏)之间的大众文化形象建构为个案

大众文化所创造的地缘政治神话直接塑造了特定社群对其他国家形象的想象,深刻影响国家认同、外交政策和国际关系。在后现代的军事—工业—媒体—娱乐网络中,大众文化产品一方面向民众传播政治精英的地缘政治想象,另一方面向决策层反馈流行话语中的大众地缘政治想象。大众文化产品塑造"他者"的方式具有多元性,其"他者"形象的生成机制可以理论化为"非人化"、"奇观化"和"性别化"三种模式。与之相应,西方娱乐工业往往依赖一些固定"模板",批量生产"类型化"的"他者",以维持"自我"身份叙事的稳定性。其传播过程则具有"隐蔽性",往往不会立时得到"地缘政治对手"的回应,遂成为西方文化软实力的重要推手。今天的大众地缘政治在很大程度上仍以西方为中心,西方流行文化的全球传播在取得商业成功的同时,隐蔽地对外传播深藏于其中的地缘政治想象。因而,在国际话语权竞争中,中国必须充分认识大众文化的地缘政治功能,重视大众文化建设,讲好中国故事。     

中国与“一带一路”沿线国家跨国科学研究合作何以可能?——一项定性比较分析

【问题】中国与“一带一路”沿线国家之间的跨国科学研究合作是承载“一带一路”建设科技交流与创新发展使命的重要议题,然而由于许多“一带一路”沿线国家的制度和法律环境尚不健全,甚至部分国家还存在较强的政治风险和文化冲突,这种合作并非易事。在此背景下,中国与“一带一路”沿线国家之间的跨国科学研究合作何以成为可能?【方法】本研究从宏观分析视角提出了中国与“一带一路”沿线国家之间跨国科学研究合作影响因素的分析框架,并采用模糊集定性比较分析方法识别了36个沿线国家案例中的跨国科学研究合作影响因素及其条件组合。【发现】资源投入与制度环境是影响跨国科学研究合作的重要因素,两者相互耦合共同构成跨国科学研究合作的实现路径。进一步地,本研究依据资源投入与制度环境不同耦合程度,识别出强强联合型、资源主导型、经贸带动型与政治兜底型四种跨国科学研究合作类型。【贡献】论文提出的分析框架弥补了以往研究聚焦于中观和微观层面跨国科学研究合作影响因素分析的局限性,区分了不同伙伴国家与中国开展跨国科学研究合作的各种途径,可以更为准确地解释全球治理背景下的跨国科学研究合作机制,对于中国进一步深入推进与沿线国家之间的跨国科学研究合作、提升合作效果具有积极意义。     

民营企业“匠心人才”培育研究——基于台州制造业青工人才培养的视角

改革开放以来,中国的民营企业发展迅猛,成为了拉动中国经济迅猛增长的重要力量,被视为社会主义市场经济的重要组成部分。在当今持续推进各行业产业化、全面提升民营企业核心竞争力的时刻,民营经济急需培养适合自己企业发展、具有较强实践操作技能的“匠心人才”。我们通过对“匠心人才”“高技能人才”“蓝领”等人才概念的界定,明确民营企业所需要的人才内涵及特点,并通过深入调查具有民营经济亮点的台州制造业,了解了企业培育“匠心人才”现状及存在的问题。剖析了对于“匠心人才”的培养,社会认识上存在轻“蓝领”重“白领”、学校教育上存在轻“实践”重“理论”、人才自身存在轻“长久发展”重“短期效应”、企业在用人上存在轻“一线”重“科技”、政府工作上存在轻“服务”重“业绩”等问题。为此,我们提出人才多元认识,构建尊重青年匠才的社会环境;搭建多层平台,大力拓展青年匠才发展高地;用活激励机制,全面释放青年匠才发展活力等对策建议。     

立法后评估中的公众参与“虚置”及治理路径

作为检验立法实效、提升立法质量、促进法律体系完善的立法后评估制度已逐渐在全国范围内展开实践。然而,在这种多方主体的博弈中,公众当前只是一种被动型或者功能型的“虚置”参与,无法发挥其积极性、主体性的作用。公众参与立法后评估的实践困境具体表现为:参与主体的构成失衡、参与内容的模糊、参与方式的“指令化”及参与效果的抑制。要突破这一困境,须正确认识公众参与评估的价值,从意识、制度、参与的指向及参与效果等方面构建参与路径,实现立法后评估中公众参与的有效性和制度化。