美国合同法中的精神损害赔偿探析

传统的英美合同法理论认为,侵权责任中的精神损害赔偿不能扩展到违约责任中。然而,随着经济的发展,为了更好地保护受害方的利益,美国法学界和法院在一定程度上打破了这一传统原则,允许受害方在某些情况下可以要求违约中的精神损害赔偿,如：合同具有个人因素,合同条款无法为受害方提供适当金钱赔偿,违约方在订约时已经或应该预见到其违约行为将导致的精神损害等。笔者在对此进行仔细研究的基础上,对我国在这方面的立法提出了建议。     

由王马玲案看被害人过错问题

曾在＂反暴力拆迁＂案中造成＂一死六伤＂的女主角王马玲,在二审判决中由一审＂故意杀人罪、有期徒刑8年＂改判为＂故意伤害罪、有期徒刑5年＂,改判的主要原因在于被害人存在过错。大量案例显示,在故意伤害案中,被害人过错是一个经常出现的情节,鉴于被害人过错与法益损害结果的产生具有刑法规范上的因果关系,而这种因果关系的存在事实上降低了刑法期待行为人实施合法行为的可能性,因而对其细致考量将对行为人公正的刑事责任非难具有重要价值。当前,被害人过错在司法实践中作为酌定量刑情节之定位影响了其效用发挥,因而对其法定化、标准化和规范化的适用是司法工作的当务之急。     

法律的公众认同、功能期许与道德承载对刑法修正案(八)的复眼式解读

刑法修正案(八)不但针对我国转型时期的社会情势和国情民意予以了很大程度的回应，而且也体现了官方和主流民意对刑法的功能期待，承载了当下社会基本的集体道德情感，但被一些刑法改革者认为立法理性不够或过多地迁就了庸俗的民粹主义，以致没有较好地摆脱传统工具主义和重刑主义的思维与窠臼。诚然，转型时期高度复杂的社会情势和大众心理基质难免使得实定刑法所蕴含的价值理念互有差别、充满悖反乃至相互抵牾。欲对这种吊诡的多重面向予以同情之理解与有效的解读，除了法学与逻辑的思维论证，更重要的可能还必须导入法律社会学、社会心理学和法律经济学等多维度的复眼化视角。     

国家行政机关处长工作的探索性研究

本文运用工作日志、深度访谈和问卷调查的方法、对国家行政机关处长的工作进行了探索性研究。基本的结论是:从工作性质看,处长工作具有参谋与辅助性、以执行为主、一定程度的决策性、承上启下的务实性的特点;从工作角色看,处长在工作中是重要的策划者、忠实的执行者、特殊的管理者、广泛的协调者;从行为的差异性上看,处长的职务行为可划分为管理、监督、咨询、服务、技术等类型。     

效率违约理论研究

效率违约理论是契约法经济分析的重要方面。效率违约理论的成立需要损害赔偿与实际履行等价以及违约人知悉被违约人的成本为条件。事实上,这些条件在现实生活和法律体系内无法实现。期望损害赔偿从来不能完全弥补被违约人的损失,契约法也不能在任何情况下将损害赔偿作为通常救济方式。更为关键的是,效率违约理论从性质上看是行为结果论的,它没有考虑到契约背后的允诺所承载的道德、团结、合作、鼓励专用投资以及动态效率等多元价值。因此,我国的契约法没有必要引入效率违约理论和制度。     

我国家庭法制教育现状与展望

家庭法制教育是对青少年进行法制教育的重要组成部分。虽然我国的家庭法制教育形成了自己的一些特色,取得了一些成果,但存在的问题也是比较突出的,因此有必要加以改进和提高。     

Are Shelter Workers Burned Out?: An Examination of Stress,Social Support,and Coping

Job stress, perceived social support, coping self-efficacy, and coping strategies were studied as predictors of emotional exhaustion and reduced personal accomplishment among a sample of 123 female shelter workers. Overall, these workers did not meet the collective criteria for burnout as defined by Maslach and Jackson (1986) and perceived social support and coping strategies did not account for unique variance in the prediction of emotional exhaustion and reduced personal accomplishment. Rather, high levels of time pressure and low levels of self-efficacy for being productive at work were identified as predictors of emotional exhaustion. Personal accomplishment was predicted by time pressure and robust levels of self-efficacy for dealing with stressors at work. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 109th annual convention of the American Psychological Association. This paper is based on the Masters thesis of Lisa M. Baker and the undergraduate honors thesis of Nazish Salahuddin, both completed under the direction of Karen M. O’Brien. Gratitude is extended to Christel Nichols and to the crisis workers who participated in this study.     

How to Cautiously Uncover the “Black Box” of Machine Learning Models for Legislative Scholars

Machine learning models, especially ensemble and tree-based approaches, offer great promise to legislative scholars. However, they are heavily underutilized outside of narrow applications to text and networks. We believe this is because they are difficult to interpret: while the models are extremely flexible, they have been criticized as “black box” techniques due to their difficulty in visualizing the effect of predictors on the outcome of interest. In order to make these models more useful for legislative scholars, we introduce a framework integrating machine learning models with traditional parametric approaches. We then review three interpretative plotting strategies that scholars can use to bring a substantive interpretation to their machine learning models. For each, we explain the plotting strategy, when to use it, and how to interpret it. We then put these plots in action by revisiting two recent articles from Legislative Studies Quarterly.     

房地产泡沫：理论分析与长三角实证检验

房地产泡沫是一种与人的心理预期有关的价格现象,对房地产泡沫的测度应综合考虑经济基本面和心理预期因素.以上海、南京和杭州为样本,对1999-2007年长三角的房地产价格泡沫程度和发展趋势进行实证分析,发现2002年之前长三角房地产价格泡沫在5%以内,属于合理范围;从2003年起房地产泡沫开始加速膨胀,2006年达到顶点,2007年有所回调.应当密切注意其房地产价格波动,并进行正确的引导,这对房地产市场的建康发展至关重要.     

Unemployment trends and labour market entry in Ghana: job search methods perspective

ABSTRACT

Statistical information is critical for both government and the general public for monitoring, evaluation, and implementation of employment policies and programmes. This paper revisits the labour market trends between 2012 and 2016 and discusses the importance of job search methods for labour market entry in Ghana. We explored job search methods (Formal and Informal Methods) used by 235 participants from seven regions of Ghana. Results revealed that many of the participants highly relied on informal job search methods to secure jobs across all demographic variables. This has been the case in Ghana when unemployment continues to increase leading to a difficult labour market entry. Our findings, therefore, suggest that in such a restricted labour market, employment success is likely to be determined by ‘whom you know’. The results offer practical recommendations for private and public employment consultancies, as well as policymakers to institute impactful intervention programmes for job seekers on the efficient ways of developing and sustaining meaningful social capital/networks to enhance their chances of finding employment.