The promises and perils of subsidiarity in global governance: evidence from Africa

In the messy world of global governance, the principle of subsidiarity has the potential to order relations between different layers of governance as well as compensate for the legitimacy deficit of global governance institutions. However, subsidiarity has received surprisingly little scholarly attention in the discipline of International Relations. This article therefore seeks to examine the promises and perils of subsidiarity in global governance by adducing empirical evidence from Africa, a region which has authored norms and policies that often contest global norms and institutions. Based on two case studies of pro-democratic intervention in The Gambia and court proliferation at the (sub-)regional levels, the article concludes that while subsidiarity may strengthen democracy and the rule of law at the national level, it may also undermine the rule of law at the global level, as well as dilute fundamental global norms that serve to protect basic human rights. At the same time, subsidiarity provides opportunities for normative innovation, which suggests that more attention needs to be paid to the law-generating effects of subsidiarity and to the Global South as an agent of change in international law and global governance.     

The invisible/visible claims to justice: sexual violence and the university camp(us)

If the relationship between international tribunals and reconciliation remains empirically under‐researched within the transitional justice literature, this is even truer in respect of hybrid and local courts. Seeking to address this gap, the purpose of this article is to explore whether the State Court of Bosnia and Hercegovina (BiH) – and more particularly its War Crimes Chamber (WCC) – can contribute to reconciliation in BiH. Unlike the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), the State Court is located in the country itself. Hence, in theory at least, it has greater potential to involve local people and thus to facilitate the reconciliation process. In practice, however, the Court faces many of the same problems as the ICTY, including perceptions of bias and the difficulty of satisfying victims. What this ultimately demonstrates is that criminal trials are not a panacea or “magic bullet” and that reconciliation – both in BiH and in post‐conflict societies more generally – requires a comprehensive and holistic approach to transitional justice that does not over‐rely upon the administration of retributive justice. The State Court, therefore, is merely one potential path to reconciliation.     

An Anthropological Contribution to Peace and Conflict Resolution Studies

This article takes its stance in the fruitful perspectives with which anthropology may contribute to peace and conflict resolution studies, a field seemingly dominated by political science. Not only the relativity of ‘peace’ and ‘war’ is at stake when anthropologists intervene with their epistemologies applied to human interaction in violent contexts. Challenging the methodology of registering such interaction and asking for gender perspectives are pivotal parts of the anthropological endeavour within peace studies. Trying to emphasize the opposite of ‘normal’—which is concentrating on war—anthropologists have a longstanding tradition of focusing on peaceful societies as well as documenting the resocialization of peoples suffering from atrocities.     

Homicide Trends in Finland and Estonia in 1880–1940: Consequences of the Demographic,Social and Political Effects of Industrialization

While in western Europe and Scandinavia homicide rates reached their all time low during the period of industrialization, in Finland and Estonia they increased considerably. The rapid growth of criminal violence during the late 1800s and first half of the 1900s in these two countries seems to have been the result of interaction of several factors, partly non-simultaneous and unrelated. They do not seem to have been identical either, although the underlying equation was the same: the quick social and economic change following industrialization, and the modernisation of agriculture, the pressures it put especially on the youth in the form of uncertain prospects for the future and a new competition-oriented set of values, connected with the authoritarian political system of Russian Empire, which prevented necessary political reforms and left behind a legacy of social thinking idealizing violence as a political and social instrument. A legacy, which affected large parts of Finnish and Estonian population still for years after the czarist system itself already passed into history. The criminal violence arisen from the equation, however, had quite a different face on the northern coast of the Gulf of Finland from that on the southern one. In Finland the violence was centered in the new forest industrial communities, in Estonia again among the landless population of the countryside.     

证人出庭作证实践之困境

2013年1月1日实施修订的刑事诉讼法对我国证人出庭作证制度做出了修正和完善,但在现实生活及司法实践中还面临着一些困境。文章从传统观念及公民素质阻力、证人保护机制、出庭作证经济补偿、强制出庭作证可能引发的负效应等方面对证人出庭作证进行分析,以期为证人出庭作证制度的进一步完善提供参考。     

论侦查人员的讯问行为——以犯罪嫌疑人权利及其保障为视角

侦查人员的讯问行为是讯问方法的载体,讯问目标的实现依赖于具体的讯问行为。羁押状态与非羁押状态下的犯罪嫌疑人权利存在差别,可分为完整享有和不完整享有权利。侦查讯问行为直接影响或侵害犯罪嫌疑人的权利。从法律规范层面看,侦查讯问可分为指令性、禁止性和允许性讯问行为。在侦查讯问中,应大力提倡指令性讯问;应从犯罪嫌疑人权利、亲权是否受威胁、侵害界分讯问中的威胁、引诱、欺骗行为是否合法;选择性施行律师在场、检察机关介入讯问、全程录音录像等制度以抑止禁止性讯问行为;从讯问时限、语言和尊重嫌疑人人格等角度规范讯问中的允许性行为。     

Envisioning the next generation of behavioral health and criminal justice interventions

The purpose of this paper is to cast a vision for the next generation of behavioral health and criminal justice interventions for persons with serious mental illnesses in the criminal justice system. The limitations of first generation interventions, including their primary focus on mental health treatment connection, are discussed. A person–place framework for understanding the complex factors that contribute to criminal justice involvement for this population is presented. We discuss practice and research recommendations for building more effective interventions to address both criminal justice and mental health outcomes.     

Attitudes toward hiring applicants with mental illness and criminal justice involvement: The impact of education and experience

Individuals with mental health diagnoses, as well as those involved in the criminal justice system, experience a number of barriers in the recovery and reintegration progress, including access to stable, prosocial employment opportunities. Employment for these populations is important for establishing financial security, reducing unstructured leisure time, increasing self-worth, and improving interpersonal skills. However, research has demonstrated that individuals with psychiatric and/or criminal backgrounds may experience stigmatizing attitudes from employers that impede their ability to find adequate work. This study aimed to evaluate stigmatizing beliefs toward hypothetical applicants who indicated a mental health history, a criminal history, or both, as well as the effectiveness of psychoeducation in reducing stigma. Participants consisted of 465 individuals recruited from a large university who completed a series of online questions about a given applicant. Results of this study varied somewhat across measures of employability, but were largely consistent with extant research suggesting that mental illness and criminal justice involvement serve as deterrents when making hiring decisions. Overall, psychoeducation appeared to reduce stigma for hiring decisions when the applicant presented with a criminal history. Unfortunately, similar findings were not revealed when applicants presented with a psychiatric or a psychiatric and criminal history. Implications and limitations of these findings are presented, along with suggestions for future research.     

我国黑社会犯罪刑事立法的反思与完善

当前,我国已初步形成了以刑法典第294条和其他关联条款为主体,以刑法修正案和相关法律解释等法律文件为补充的黑社会犯罪刑法惩治体系,人们对黑社会犯罪的认识正在不断深化,犯罪形势、刑事立法和刑事司法相互影响也日渐增强.然而,由于规范与事实间存在的固有间隙,我国黑社会犯罪立法在观念上还存在较多问题与缺陷.若有效地与黑社会犯罪作斗争,必须从我国实际情况出发,根据黑社会犯罪的演变过程与实际的发展形态来完善惩治黑社会犯罪的刑法体系.