Between Tradition and Modernity: The Re-trial System of the Beiyang Period in the Early Republic of China (1912-1928)

During the Beiyang period of the early Republic of China, the re-trial system覆判 referred to the practice where cases considered by the county magistrate had to be sent to the provincial high court for re-trial to ensure that the case facts were true, the law was correctly applied, and the penalties were appropriate. The scope of the re-trial cases continuously expanded from 1912 to 1922 and, finally, the Amendment to the Statutes on the Re-trial System in 1922 stipulated that all cases under the jurisdiction of the district courts where county magistrates tried, whether through appeal or re-trial, had to be re-tried by the high court or its branches. The adjustment of the scope of the re-trial cases was closely related to the extent to which the county magistrates’ judicial discretion was restricted. During the Beiyang period, due to the failure to establish formal courts of the first instance in counties throughout the country, the county magistrates concurrently handled judicial affairs, which inevitably caused the magistrates’ judicial discretion. The re-trial system was originally designed to compensate for the drawbacks of county magistrates managing judicial affairs and to facilitate the transition within the judicial system. However, the interpretation of the role of the re-trial system should not be limited to reconciliation and adaptation of the old and new judicial systems in the Beiyang period but also to compensate for the deficiencies of county magistrates’ judgments by continuously improving the re-trial procedure and to ensure the fairness of justice through restrictions on the judicial discretion of county magistrates, the enjoyment of equality of procedures, and the establishment of supervision procedures.     

论行政机关协助执行行为的可诉性

行政机关协助执行行为认定为"司法协助行为+行政行为",可以在确保司法权威与提高执行效率的同时促进法治政府的建设,为当事人合法权益救济提供可能。《关于适用〈中华人民共和国行政诉讼法〉的解释》第一条第二款第七项但书前的规定,因为受司法权作用,是不具有可诉性的司法协助义务;但书后的规定,因为有行政机关独立自主的意思表示,是具有可诉性的行政行为。其中,但书中"扩大执行范围"包括执行范围内容、种类、期限的扩大,"采取违法方式"包括滥用职权、超越职权以及程序违法。"缩小执行范围""不作为""擅自撤销或变更"等协助执行违法行为需要通过类推适用的方式对条款的法律漏洞予以填补。     

White Women. White Nation. White Cosmopolitanism: Swedish Migration between the National and the Global

Emerging from the concepts of white cosmopolitanism and white cosmopolitan femininity, this article analyses “cosmopolitan narratives” of Swedish migrant women who lived abroad for an extended period and eventually returned to Sweden. Based on eight months’ ethnographic work, including 46 in-depth interviews with migrants who had returned in Sweden, the article explores how national boundaries are both maintained and traversed in the construction of a “world citizen”. It is argued that the women’s self-identification with a cosmopolitan ethos is structured by whiteness, nationality, and class that grants uninterrupted mobility and “worldliness”. As symbolic bearers of the Swedish nation, national ideals act on the white women’s bodies internationally, in ways that both uphold and re-inscribe the nation into the global. Thus, apart from obscuring global inequalities, white cosmopolitan femininity is imbricated in both national and global politics as a place where global structures reconnect with the white nation, thereby enabling Swedish migrants to re-install themselves into contemporary global settings as self-defined cosmopolitan subjects     

Making space for a new role – gender differences in identity changes in couples transitioning to parenthood

Changes in life roles reflect the process of reorganization of identity, which is an important component of adaptation during transition to parenthood. During this family transition gender differences are significant. Despite the fact that in Western societies women and men are encouraged to share family and work responsibilities, female self-concept is more strongly associated with motherhood, whereas men still highly value the role of a breadwinner. Therefore, relative perceived and desired salience, and directly assessed importance of main life roles (a spouse, a worker and a parent) before and after the birth of the child were examined. One hundred and eighty-seven couples participated in the study. The perceived (relative and directly assessed), and relative desired salience of a parental role increased after the child’s birth in both genders. Women valued the parent role higher than men who deemed the worker role more salient to their identity after the child’s birth. Spouse identity seemed to be created in the couple itself as both partners assessed it similarly. Inclusion of couples and repeated measurement of all variables allowed for the analysis of complex changes in self-perceptions in transitions to motherhood and fatherhood.     

北京市工会干部队伍状况调查

当前首都发展进入新时代,首都工会工作面临产业结构、劳动关系、职工队伍等一系列深刻变化。工会干部作为工会工作的组织者、推动者和实践者,是新时代工会工作的主力军和关键要素。因此,加强工会干部队伍建设对于促进新时代首都工会工作发展具有极其重要的作用。本文在对北京市工会干部队伍状况调查的基础上,系统梳理了北京工会干部队伍的基本情况和总体特征,旨在把握工会干部队伍发展的新情况、新问题,并针对调查中发现的主要问题和工会干部队伍建设的时代要求,提出了相关建议。     

Naqshbandi Sufis and their conception of place,time and fear on the Turkish-Syrian border and borderland

The employment of diverse forms of security and control on territorial borders have led to the production of numerous events of border crossings, smuggling, banditry and death along with stories of separation, loss, mourning, pain, and yearning in the everyday life of border people. The Naqshbandi Khaznavi order has an expansive interpersonal social network across the political borders of Turkish and Syrian nation-states. This work analyzes the ways in which Sufis dealt with diverse aspects of the Turkish-Syrian border by unbinding shackles and orders of political system that were fabricated constantly from the 1920s to the early 1980s. The life stories and narratives of the Sufis document the existence of a religious-cultural landscape, diversifying the perception of place, time and fear which have transcended political borders for decades, contradicting official cartographic imagination and the modern-secular understanding of place and time. Besides, in addition to analyses of religious orders as social, economic and political entities, this work aims to elucidate emotional aspects of relations and faith that coexist between Sufis and their Sheikh in the context of spatial distance, political border and fear of death.     

Discourses of American national identity: echoes and lessons from the 1910s–1920s

Anti-immigration sentiment is intricately connected to an ethno-racial conception of American national identity, a connection that has deep roots in American politics and is increasingly visible in recent debates surrounding immigration. To support this claim, the article begins with an examination of the multiple traditions approach to American national identity which, in turn, frames a discussion of three recent incidents in US politics that illustrate the fusion of anti-immigrant sentiment and an ethno-racial national identity. It then illustrates how these incidents echo and recycle similar dynamics from the 1910s–1920s before examining the arguments of Horace Kallen and Randolph Bourne, both of whom defended forms of cultural pluralism as a counter-discourse to the anti-immigrant nativism, restrictionism, and 100% Americanism of the era. Their arguments are then evaluated to assess whether they remain useful in our current era. Despite some limitations, the insights of Kallen and Bourne can serve as a counter-discourse that helps bolster present-day arguments in favor of a more inclusive, pluralistic, egalitarian, and democratic vision of national identity in the US.     

Transnational activists,news media representations,and racialized ‘politics of life’: the Christian Peacemaker Team kidnapping in Iraq

In late 2005, four antiwar activists with a group called Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) were kidnapped in Baghdad. Two of the men were identified as Canadian citizens, and the other two were an American and a Briton. In March 2006, after nearly four months in captivity, three of the men were rescued through a military operation involving British, American, Canadian, and Iraqi forces, and they were returned to their countries of residence. This essay explores the racialized privileges of Western citizenship status, and in particular, its deployment in transnational (referring to the physical crossing of national borders) interventions made by such activists. Moreover, this essay seeks to understand and reveal the vast distinction between those who carry the privilege of Western citizenship and those who do not, and the subversive possibilities within such asymmetrical power relations. By using media representations of this kidnapping as the focal point of the analysis, this essay explores how racialization and sexuality work together to construct both Western citizenship and national identity.     

Russia says no: Power,status, and emotions in foreign policy

Since 2003, Russian foreign behavior has become much more assertive and volatile toward the West, often rejecting U.S. diplomatic initiatives and overreacting to perceived slights. This essay explains Russia's new assertiveness using social psychological hypotheses on the relationship between power, status, and emotions. Denial of respect to a state is humiliating. When a state loses status, the emotions experienced depend on the perceived cause of this loss. When a state perceives that others are responsible for its loss, it shows anger. The belief that others have unjustly used their power to deny the state its appropriate position arouses vengefulness. If a state believes that its loss of status is due to its own failure to live up to expectations, the elites will express shame. Since the end of the Cold War, Russia has displayed anger at the U.S. unwillingness to grant it the status to which it believes it is entitled, especially during the 2008 Russo-Georgian War, and most recently Russia's takeover of Crimea and the 2014 Ukrainian Crisis. We can also see elements of vengefulness in Russia's reaction to recognition of Kosovo, U.S. missile defense plans, the Magnitsky act, and the Snowden affair.     

The Arabness of Middle East regionalism: the Arab Spring and competition for discursive hegemony between Egypt,Iran and Turkey

The Middle East is often considered to demonstrate a case of weak regionalism. This article suggests that the continued prevalence of Arab identity as the hegemonic component of regional consciousness contributes to this. The dominance of a discourse of ‘Arabness’ reduces the region's flexibility to adapt and develop regional institutions in several ways and particularly vis-a-vis the non-Arab communities and states that are found within the spatial boundaries of the Middle East. To explore the role played by Arab identity politics in regionalism with regard to the status of non-Arab states, this article presents a study of the competing hegemonic regional discourses employed by Turkey, Iran and Egypt during a two-year period following the 2011 uprising in Egypt. This analysis suggests that even during a time of crisis, non-Arab states face obstacles to their assertion of regional projects and that Arabness is a central factor in the narratives resisting alternative interpretations of the interests and definition of the Middle East as a region. The article concludes that Arabness forms the hegemonic discourse that shapes the international relations of the Middle East.