美国《1998年国际宗教自由法》及对中美关系的影响评析

<1998年国际宗教自由法>(以下简称IRFA)是由美国保守派推动制订的一部具有域外效力的美国国内法.由于该法所包含的双重标准以及该法在推行过程中必然会产生的诸多问题,该法实施以来"产生"的域外效力十分有限,未对中美关系造成直接影响.但在美国社会不断保守化的背景下,IRFA对中美关系的间接和负面影响不容小视.针对美国国务院每年发布的<国际宗教自由年度报告>中对中国宗教自由状况的歪曲,中国政府予以外交上的坚决谴责是必须的,但从根本上说,在宗教领域奉行接触政策,勿视美国为敌,怀柔美国应是当前我国韬光养晦外交的较佳选择.     

论合同自由原则及其限制

自由是人类的永恒追求,合同自由是合同法的灵魂,自由原则亦是我国合同法的核心原则,贯穿整个合同法的始终。但是,自由并非是绝对的,无限制的自由是对权利的滥用,不利于权利的有效行使和各方主体价值利益的平衡,因此我国合同法又对自由原则进行了诸多合理的限制,如强制缔约、标准合同、附随义务、诚实信用、公序良俗等。     

人权的普遍性根据与实现人权的文化前提

人的自由的绝对性使人拥有绝对的人权,维护与实践人权作为一种自觉的要求,要以对人的自由本质与绝对权利的自觉为前提,也就是要以启蒙文化为前提,而启蒙文化需要由文化启蒙来造就.这意味着,既不可能以武力推行人权,也不可能以任何文化传统的特殊性为借口拒绝人权.人权的绝对性与民族主义国家理论并无学理上的关联,一个主权实体内部的人权...     

Cross-circulations and Transnational Solidarity: Historicizing the US Anti-apartheid Movement Through Song

In encounters with African-American expressive culture, black South Africans at the dawn of the twentieth century recognized possibilities for their own lives—educational institutions free from white intervention, professional advancement, and independent nationalist governance. African-Americans seeking to reconnect with the continent worked for South Africa’s independence from apartheid. Music was a critical component of these engagements, creating lasting connections across national boundaries.

This paper situates the anti-apartheid activism of Sweet Honey in the Rock and In Process…, both African-American women’s a capella ensembles, within a larger historical trajectory. Through cross-circulations between the U.S. and South Africa, music constituted shared interpretive space linking African-American and black South African activist communities in combating systems of racial injustice in both countries. Building on scholarship on the role of performance in social movements, I explore the creation of shared community across national boundaries through the profound circulation of song.     

Restorative justice in the aftermath of politically-motivated violence: the Basque experience

ABSTRACT

An emerging body of literature discusses how restorative justice can contribute to the response to terrorism. This paper expresses concerns about the uncritical acceptance of many orthodox assumptions about terrorism inherent in the search for a “restorative response” to terrorism. When restorative justice embraces the label “terrorism” in what appears to be a politically neutral sense, rather than opening up a critical discussion of realities of political violence and the factors that had propelled it, it may form part of the efforts designed to inculcate “truths” that help control political dissent. With its key aspiration being to restore a presumed healthy order disrupted by terrorist offences, restorative justice may be enlisted to help entrench social relations that led to the violence in the first place. The paper illustrates this danger by examining attempts to use restorative justice techniques by Spanish authorities in the aftermath of ETA or Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (“Basque Homeland and Freedom”) violence. It is argued that rather than searching for a “restorative response” to terrorism, a more adequate framework for restorative justice in the aftermath of politically motivated violence may be found within broader projects of reparation for historical injustices, remembering and political reconciliation.     

The Rise of India: Overcoming Caste Society and Permit-License-Quota Raj,Implementing Some Economic Freedom

Two or three centuries ago most of mankind was still very poor. When the West outgrew mass poverty, India was a British colony and suffered from stagnation. When East Asian economies exploited the advantages of backwardness and benefited from export-led growth, India remained inward-looking and poor. The ‘Hindu rate of growth’ preserved mass poverty. Since the reforms of the early 1990s India has exploited the advantages of backwardness and some global markets. In this article, the roots of India's failure to grow rapidly before the end of the twentieth century are analyzed. Stagnation is blamed on restrictions of economic freedom, whereas growth is explained by the expansion of economic freedom. Before the mid-twentieth century, the caste system and the legacy of sultanism curtailed economic freedom and contributed to economic stagnation. Thereafter, democratic socialism distorted incentives and generated ‘permit-license-quota raj’ or a rent-seeking society. When some obstacles to growth were dismantled, vigorous growth followed. Although expanding economic freedom remains limited. India's growth potential is not yet fully exploited. Indian infrastructure and human capital formation remain inadequate, regulations intrusive, and the budget in deficit. The rule of law looks better on paper than from the ground. Compared to China Indian public policy still has a lot of room for improvements. ‘Maoists’ or Naxalites threaten political stability and economic freedom. Geopolitics may explain India's late, slow and incomplete reforms. The rise of Asia, in particular of China and India, generates geopolitical challenges of its own. Conceivably, the global expansion of economic freedom permits not only the rise of Asia, but the peaceful management of the coming power transition between Asia and the West.     

Exploring the limits of institutional change: The direct election of mayors in Western Europe

The process of local institutional reform that different Western European countries underwent starting in the 1990s converged towards the direct election of mayors in Italy, England, Austria and Germany. Using a comparative analysis of those countries and including in it Belgium and the Netherlands (where the introduction of directly elected mayors is planned) and Greece and Portugal (with a long tradition of it), the article examines why countries with such different municipal traditions have tended towards the same institutional solution. The answer runs through the text implicitly: the institutional tradition of each country appears to have a greater capacity for explaining the outcome of the reform rather than isomorphism in the introduction of the direct election of mayors.     

公海保护区的国际法基本原则辨析

目前,国际社会对公海保护区进行了一定程度的规范,但依然存在着没有直接的法律依据的处境。在此背景下,现有相关公约、条约或宣言等体现出来的法律原则为公海保护区提供了主要法理基础。公海保护区包括不同类别的法律原则,即国际法基本原则中直接与公海保护区有关的原则,国际环境法基本原则以及国际海洋法基本原则。公海保护区是适用于基本原则的领域,同时,它也是基本原则引中和发展出来的具体规则。     

哈耶克自由主义法哲学思想研究

法哲学是法治时代政治文明精华的体现,法治时代是一个迈向权利的时代,更是一个迈向自由的时代,自由当是我们时代精神最为集中的体现。哈耶克批判地继承了前述理论家们对法律与自由关系的论述,总结前人的思想,艰苦钻研得出了自由就是法律的目的的精辟结论,哈耶克坚信法就是作为理念的自由。他的所有的对于法治理论的论述都是为了"自由"这个目的而准备的。虽然哈耶克是以一个资本主义制度顽固的捍卫者身份登上历史的舞台,但是他对待学术所表现出来的鞠躬尽瘁的态度和为现代法治研究探索做出的努力还是值得所有学者肯定和赞赏的,并且为我国正处于改革时期的法治建设提供了理论依据,深入研究哈耶克的自由主义法哲学思想,无论在理论上还是实践上、无论是对全世界的公民们还是对法哲学思想家们,这都是意义重大的。     

论规制堕胎行为的考量

堕胎的问题,无论是医学伦理学还是生命伦理学抑或在法学领域内已早有讨论,但对胎儿是否为"人"或"位格之属性"尚未有定论。再者,就胎儿和孕妇关系而言,从"位格"特性之实体性、关系性、目的性分析了作为合二为一的"独立性实体"与"关系性实体"之间的关系,作为"关系实体"的胎儿应受到应有的尊重。德国联邦宪法法院坚持国家利益的立场,限制堕胎行为,对自由堕胎行为进行了规制,但也存在例外情形;美国堕胎案中,最高法院在韦德案秉持的是一种自由主义,堕胎是孕妇的一项宪法所保护的隐私权,而在凯瑟案中最高法院采取了限制堕胎自由,国家为了保护潜在的生命,可以限制堕胎。自此,堕胎自由式微,国家对胎儿有保护义务。