Performing Counter-Hegemonic Common(s) Senses: Rearticulating Democracy,Community and Forests in Puerto Rico

Political ecologists have developed scathing analyses of capitalism’s tendency for enclosure and dispossession of the commons. In this context commons are analyzed as a force to resist neo-liberalism, a main site of conflict over dispossession, and a source of alternatives to capitalism. In this paper we elaborate a view of the commons as the material and symbolic terrain where performative re-articulation of common(s) senses can potentially enact counter-hegemonic socio-ecological configurations. Expressly drawing on the concepts of hegemony, “common-senses” (inspired by Antonio Gramsci) and “performativity” (developed by Judith Butler), we argue that counter-hegemony is performed through everyday practices that rearticulate existing common senses about commons. Commoning is a set of processes/relations enacted to challenge capitalist hegemony and build more just/sustainable societies insofar as it transforms and rearranges common senses in/through praxis. The paper draws on the experience of an anti-mining movement of Casa Pueblo in Puerto Rico, which for the last 35+ years has been developing a project self-described as autogestion. The discussion pays special attention to Casa Pueblo’s praxis and discourses to investigate how they rearticulate common senses with regard to nature, community and democracy, as well as their implications for counter-hegemonic politics.     

The Great Rabbit Massacre – A “Comedy of the Commons”? Custom, Community and Rights of Public Access to the Links of St Andrews

In the US courts and legal scholars have rediscovered the English doctrine of custom. In her essay ``The Comedy of the Commons: Custom, Commerce, and Inherently Public Property', Professor Carol Rose argues that customary uses of recreation lands should be upheld by courts because the highest value of such land is achieved by keeping them open to the public. Rose relies in her argument on the English doctrine of custom, but the doctrine of custom legitimates local not public use. British legal history, however, provides an example of such a ``public' common in the Links of St Andrews. In the case Dempster v. Cleghorn, the golfing public sought to vindicate their customary right to the maintenance of golfing ground as it had been ``in all times past'. This article examines the case of Dempster, and the consequent riot, and asks whether it was a ``comedy of the commons'. It concludes that despite ten years of litigation and the extirpation of the Dempsters' warrened rabbits, the case nevertheless is a ``comedy of the commons' that provides a model of the meditation of public use by local custom and community. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Equality and Human Rights: Foundations of a Common Culture?

The creation of the new GB Commission for Equality and Human Rights invites fresh reflection on the relationship between human rights and equality. This article suggests that an account of equality that goes beyond the negative notion of anti-discrimination towards a more positive value-driven conception of equal participation offers the best chance of fruitful coalition with a human rights approach. It also argues that human rights themselves must be rescued from the perception that they are primarily about civil liberties and relevant only to matters of state security and criminal justice. It is proposed that recent developments in equality law and in the understanding of the implications of human rights principles for public service delivery provide the foundation for shared values and for a common culture that is truly democratic, deliberative and participatory. The new Commission to that extent enjoys an historic opportunity.     

试论社会主义核心价值体系的几个基本问题

社会主义核心价值体系是社会主义意识形态的本质体现，是社会主义先进文化的主旋律；社会主义核心价值体系包括马克思主义指导思想、中国特色社会主义共同理想、以爱国主义为核心的民族精神和以改革创新为核心的时代精神、社会主义荣辱观等四个方面；建设社会主义核心价值体系，一要加大宣传力度，二要加大教育力度，三要加大研究力度，四要加大实践力度，五要加大保障力度。     

关于法官依常理断案的思考

常理客观地存在于法的制定和实施中，法官依常理断案可以弥补成文法的局限性，削减法官对事实认识的局限。然而，由于社会公众的不理解以及法官法律论证能力的欠缺,法官依常理断案时常陷入困境。法官依常理断案并不是也不应当是完全任意的,应当结合中国实际设计一些具体的制度与规则，尽量将法官依常理断案的副作用降低到不影响裁判的正当性、准确性的程度。     

共同富裕：效率与公平统一的价值目标

共同富裕是我们党和全国人民始终追求的价值目标,而效率与公平的统一是共同富裕目标的内在要求.在中国特色社会主义建设实践中,我们党正确定位效率与公平的关系,提出新时期要更加注重公平,为实现共同富裕目标提供了积极、有益的思路.     

城镇化进程中农村征地补偿制度的思考

我国现行的农村土地征收补偿制度存在着许多弊端，土地征用补偿标准偏低且有失公平，征收范围过宽，征地目的超出“公共利益”的范畴，土地征用补偿范围偏窄，补偿方式单一，补偿金额直接由政府决定，农民无参与权，缺乏民主程序；征地补偿费的分配依据不完善等。完善我国现行土地征收补偿制度，应遵循市场原则，提高征地补偿标准；用法律来明确“公共利益”；建立和完善补偿纠纷仲裁机构和司法渠道；合理分配征地补偿费用。     

论一般交通肇事罪的控制模式

对于以过失为主观特征的一般交通肇事犯罪,应当采取相对宽缓的刑事政策。一方面,应当通过修改刑事立法,构建一般交通肇事犯罪案件的刑事和解处理模式;另一方面,应当探索对一般交通肇事犯罪者的社区矫正处遇模式。     

民族地方自治法规与一般地方性法规的关系

民族自治地方的立法权是其自治权的最重要体现,但这项极其重要的权利,却未能得到充分行使。只有深入分析民族地方自治法规与一般地方性法规的关系,才能对自治法规的性质和地位有准确的定位,更好地发挥民族自治地方的立法权,促进各民族的共同发展,繁荣与进步。