Coordinating Transitional Justice

Conflict resolution professionals sometimes differ from human rights professionals about the best approaches to transitional justice, particularly with regard to the scope, conditions, and timing of possible amnesties from prosecution for perpetrators of war crimes and human rights abuses. When human rights and conflict resolution professionals work at cross‐purposes, they may work less effectively to end conflict, abuses, and crimes, and to implement peace accords. A consensus among conflict resolution and human rights scholars about which legal norms should govern post‐conflict amnesty programs appears to be developing. Against this emerging legal framework, human rights and conflict resolution professionals should, I argue, develop processes for working together more effectively in the design and implementation of context‐sensitive approaches to transitional justice. These process principles should address the entire conflict period, from escalation through resolution to post‐conflict reconstruction. In this article, I describe a tentative, general framework for coordinating the development of transitional justice programs. This proposed framework is intended to stimulate and guide discussion of these issues among conflict resolution and human rights professionals and scholars.     

Funding,capabilities and the use of child soldiers

Recent years have seen increased scholarly attention given to the issue of child soldiering. Primarily dedicated to the decision-making calculus of rebel groups, this body of work has generally emphasised supply-side versus demand-side arguments. We contribute to this growing literature by explicitly investigating a previously untested aspect of the latter. Prior scholarship has made vague references to a potential association between economic endowments and child soldiering, including natural resource wealth, but scant empirical attention has been given. We argue that the specific type of endowment has important consequences for the decision to utilise child soldiers. We argue access to and exploitation of lootable natural resources (e.g. gemstones) to be especially likely to promote the use of child soldiers due to their ease of access, the low skills required to harness them and the heightened likelihood that groups will become more profit-oriented. A systematic cross-national investigation of rebel groups provides robust evidence that lootable resources such as diamonds and gemstones are strongly associated with the use of children, while non-lootable resources such as oil are not.     

Negotiating international civil society support: the case of Ethiopia’s 2009 Charities and Societies Proclamation

ABSTRACT

Since 2005, international civil society support has faced increasing resistance around the world. Ethiopia is widely recognized as a key example of this so-called Closing Space phenomenon. With the 2009 Charities and Societies Proclamation (CSP) Ethiopia has established strict regulations on civil society organizations that, in particular, restrict the ability of local associations to make use of foreign funding and the range of activities allowed for foreign (funded) organizations. This paper traces the process of international negotiations that has accompanied the drafting of the CSP and identifies the consequences of these negotiations for international civil society support in the country. Focusing on the interaction between foreign “donors” and the Ethiopian government, it analyzes (a) what precisely these negotiations have been about, (b) to what extent these negotiations have actually influenced the content of the CSP, and (c) how the CSP as finally adopted has actually affected international civil society support in Ethiopia.     

论公共理性及其生成——一个公民文化的视角

理性多元化是现代民主社会的既成事实,以能为理性公众都可以接受的方式,消解理性多元化造成的社会分裂和冲突的社会场景下,公共理性呼之欲出。我们认为公共理性不是理性的公共运用,而是从私人理性中生长出来的,是公民理性的一种重叠和交叉及其运用。基于对公共理性的这种理解,我们认为公共理性何以可能的条件寓于公民文化之中。     

检察机关代表被害人提起民事诉讼的正当性研究——以侵害国家或社会利益犯罪为范例的考察

对侵害国家或社会利益的犯罪有必要提起附带民事诉讼,因为刑事处罚与行政处罚都不能代替民事赔偿.在侵害国家或社会利益的犯罪中,如果有权提起附带民事诉讼的单位或管理部门没有提起附带民事诉讼,检察机关可以代表国家或社会利益提起附带民事诉讼.检察机关代表国家利益和社会提起附带民事诉讼的根据是检察机关享有的法律监督权.检察机关不得对侵害公民私人权益的行为提起附带民事诉讼.     

陕甘宁边区高等法院对民事习惯的调查、甄别与适用

从1942年5月开始,陕甘宁边区高等法院通过法院系统内部上下级部署工作和学习任务的形式,以县为单位,由各县审判人员对本县的风俗习惯进行了比较系统的调查和甄别。截止1944年9月,该院共收集到8个县69条具有权利义务内容的民事习惯,并由收集者对之进行了初步的甄别。在此基础上,该院在民事案件的审理中适用了某些习惯。民事习惯的调查、甄别和适用,促进了审判人员对社会的了解和对民事习惯的认知,丰富了民事案件审判工作。该院虽然对所收集到的习惯进行了简单的整理,但未能完成系统的分析,也未制定出相关的政策和规则,因此这次调查未能发挥出更大的作用。     

新农村建设视域下的社会资本建构问题探论

发轫于20世纪80年代的社会资本理论具有很强的解释力。新农村建设是一项涉及政治、经济等多方面的系统工程,社会资本理论可以为其提供较好的分析视角。社会资本由信任、规范和网络构成。这种结构化的特征使得它对新农村建设具有正向功能。培育社会资本、推进新农村建设,需要政府与社会通力合作、协同治理。     

从人权和公民权利的角度解读“职工合法权益”

如果从人权和公民权利的角度出发,就不能仅仅把"职工合法权益"理解为职工所拥有的、直接与劳动关系和劳动过程有关的权利,而应该理解为职工作为人、作为公民所拥有的、受到宪法保护的基本人权和公民权.不言而喻,工会也应当是这种意义上的"职工合法权益"的代表者和维护者.     

中国律师在公益行政许可听证中法律地位研究

该文认为,确定中国律师在公益行政许可听证程序中的法律地位,是律师参与公益行政许可听证工作的重点问题,这一问题既是重大的理论问题,又是立法及执法实践亟待解决的问题。     

Trustworthiness: the Commentators

Mark Thompson deplores the decline in the public trust of government and of public service institutions such as the BBC. But there has also been a decline in another form of trust: government's trust in the ability of professionals such as doctors and teachers to deliver high quality public services. And, unlike Thompson's type of trust, this decline was inevitable, because it was based on untenable assumptions concerning professional motivation. The author discusses the importance of trust in an unwritten constitution, including trust in the use made of public resources, trust that appointments are being made on merit, trust that the civil service is ‘speaking truth unto power’ behind the scenes and ultimately trust that it retains the ability to serve future governments. In a world where trust in institutions is diminishing, there are still surprising levels of trust in the world of private philanthropy. The public are only too ready to give donations without seeking to question, especially in the wake of major disasters. Yet the nature of aid agencies has changed dramatically in the past thirty years into major global enterprises with sophisticated media and marketing operations. In this case a greater degree of scepticism from those who donate and paradoxically less trust might actually result in better outcomes from aid and better use of funding. Trust is critical to the mission of the FCO. The public needs to trust the competence and sound judgment of the professional diplomats. The diplomats themselves need to be able to rely on the commonsense of their fellow colleagues. Ministers and diplomats need to trust each other. And other governments need to have confidence in the discretion of their British counterparts. This is an increasing challenge in the world of instant news. Trust can be quickly lost by indiscreet or self‐serving revelations. But the key is to be as open and transparent as possible about the processes of diplomacy. A new survey commissioned by the British Journalism Review demonstrates that public confidence in journalism has collapsed over the last five years. This is particularly true for the commercial broadcasters ITV and Channel 4, whose journalism has traditionally commanded as much public esteem as the BBC. Trust in the BBC and print journalists has also declined, and journalism suffered more than any of the other 16 occupational groups being assessed. This is partly due to the cumulative effect of various “fakery” scandals that have afflicted broadcasters over the last 18 months and partly down to a more widespread cynicism directed at those in authority.