Rethinking economic security in a globalized world

Economic security is one of the primary dimensions of human security and is closely associated with poverty and related issues. This article takes a non-economic view of economic security and argues that the concept may lose its policy traction and relevance if it continues to be narrowly defined as and associated with poverty per se. If the concept is to continue to be useful to policy-makers and analysts, it needs to champion and embrace issues and concerns beyond poverty and consider the emergent threats affecting the non-poor. It argues, by way of several highlighted examples, that the concept is sufficiently dynamic to capture and incorporate other pervasive threats to the well-being of the people. It also points out that understanding the political impact and influence of economic security is just as important as studying the economic dynamics.     

Political capabilities for democratisation in Uganda: good governance or popular organisation building?

Opinion is divided about the capacity of civil society organisations (CSOs) to enhance the political capabilities of disadvantaged groups in neo-patrimonial contexts, and particularly through a hegemonic paradigm which seeks to advance poverty reduction through good governance. Drawing on a qualitative study of CSOs in western Uganda, this paper argues that strategies focused on increasing the participation of rural citizens in formal decentralised planning spaces may be less effective in enhancing their political capabilities than those facilitating social mobilisation through the formation of producer groups and federations. This has important implications for thinking and practice around popular empowerment in sub-Saharan Africa.     

What is the opposite of corruption?

Corruption has turned out to be difficult to define and what should be counted as the opposite to corruption remains widely disputed. If the goal for a post-conflict society is not only to become democratic and prevent a return to violence but also to reduce systemic corruption, we need to know what it is that should be fought and how the opposite to systemic corruption should be conceptualised. To define the opposite to corruption, choices have to be made along four conceptual dimensions. These are universalism vs relativism, uni- vs multidimensionality, normative vs empirical and whether the definition should relate to political procedures or policy substance. As a result of this conceptual analysis, it is argued, a universal, one-dimensional, normative and procedural definition should be preferred. The suggested definition is that of impartiality as the basic norm for the implementation of laws and policies. This conceptual analysis ends with a discussion of why such a norm has historically and in the contemporary world been hard to achieve and why it is especially problematic in post-conflict societies.     

A Life in Pictures: Looking for Elizabeth Senior

This essay follows the author’s search for forgotten art historian Elizabeth Senior (1910–41). Using a quest narrative, it traces the process undertaken to piece together the life story of a remarkable young woman, including Internet research, visits to archives and correspondence with family members. Killed at just aged 30 by a bomb during the Blitz in 1941, Senior left a quite substantial body of editorial work and writing. Editress for the inaugural volumes in Allen Lane’s King Penguin series, Senior also wrote multiple reviews for the Burlington Magazine and the British Museum Quarterly, as well as her own art historical books on portraits of Henry VIII and his wives, and on portraits of Christ (co-authored with Ernst Kitzinger). A collaborator and friend to many Jewish émigré art historians, including The Story of Art author Ernst Gombrich, Senior played an important role in facilitating the safe passage of many fleeing the Nazis for England in the 1930s and 1940s. Unmarried at the time of her death, Senior was survived by a 10-week-old baby, whom she had stashed under a table for safety when a bomb landed on her flat.     

Model villages in the neoliberal era: the Millennium Development Goals and the colonization of everyday life

What explains the recent re-emergence of ‘model village’-style social experiments, and what does this tell us about the contradictions of neoliberal development? This paper focuses on two experiments of this kind – the Millennium Villages Project in sub-Saharan Africa and the Rural Cities Project in southern Mexico – both of which aim to achieve the Millennium Development Goals through an integrated set of interventions at the village level. Drawing on Henri Lefebvre's work on the colonization of everyday life, I argue that the Millennium Development Goals function in these cases to facilitate and legitimate the production of social reality based on a naturalised vision of market society. These utopian projects embody the paradoxical character of neoliberalization, demonstrating the necessarily social production of the supposedly natural order on which neoliberalism is discursively premised, while reproducing the strategies of social engineering that the neoliberal project is rhetorically oriented against.     

论诚信原则与诉讼欺诈的法律规制

在诉讼法中确立“诚信原则”是对当事人主义诉讼模式过头之势的克服,也是支撑整个社会诚信价值的根基。诉讼欺诈以欺诈公权方式危害维护诚信价值根基的司法体系,具有特殊的社会危害性,应当作为一种相对独立的规制对象,构建诉讼法、侵权法、刑法三层立体的法律规则体系,以有效遏制诉讼欺诈现象的发生。     

罪刑关系的立体考察:罪刑关系的相关属性

罪刑关系是刑法本体论的一个极为重要的问题。在我们深入考察罪刑关系的相关属性后,我们将发现罪刑关系本来是一种立体关系而非直线关系。罪刑关系的相关属性包括客观性与主观性、强制性与宽和性、静止性和动态性、一般性与个别性,而这些属性正是在对立统一之中生成了罪刑关系的立体性。罪刑关系的立体性把握对于罪刑关系理论的丰富和罪刑关系的刑法实践都有着极其重要的意义。     

诚信原则在WTO争端解决机制中的适用评析

诚信原则作为各国民法中最重要的原则,已经成为国际法中的一般法律原则,越来越频繁地应用在WTO争端解决中。由于诚信原则存在明显的不确定性,难以在实践中适用,专家组和上诉机构在诸多案例中对诚信原则的含义及其解释法律和弥补法律漏洞的司法职能进行了确认,并成功地解决了不少争端。遗憾的是,上诉机构的司法限制制约了专家组的有益探索,过分谨慎。当前国际国内经济与法律的发展为专家组和上诉机构进行更大胆的探索准备了良好的条件,WTO争端解决机制应充分发挥诚信原则的司法职能,确立成员方诚信履行WTO实体法律的独立的义务,这将有利于弥补WTO的相关法律漏洞,迅速有效地解决争端。     

从关于“良性违宪”的争论看当代中国法治建设的关键

郝铁川与童之伟两位先生关于“良性违宪”的争论在法学界引起了强烈的反响,井延续至今。但时至今日,讨论仍未触及问题的核心．本文通过对规范与现实,良法与恶法,社会后果与形式违宪等争论的焦点进行总结和检讨,发现“良性违宪”反映的实际上是英雄主义与法律至上的对抗,问题的核心在于执政党仍抱有英雄主义情怀。因此,执政党改采法律至上立场,服从法律统治才是当代中国法治建设的关键。     

罪犯教育新课题：生命教育

作为一个高危群体,罪犯中自杀、自残、自伤以及他杀、伤害等案件不时发生。产生这种现象的深层次原因是长期以来我们对罪犯教育方面存在着重大缺失,才导致了服刑罪犯对生命的漠视。罪犯生命教育的目的是为促进罪犯个人生理、心理、社会、道德及灵性等各方面的均衡发展,以建立自己与他人、环境等的相互尊重与和谐共处的关系,协助罪犯追求生命的意义和价值,以期养成健全的人格。生命教育的宗旨,是捍卫生命的尊严,激发生命的潜能,提升生命的品质,实现生命的价值。强化罪犯的生命教育,提升罪犯的生命价值,拓展罪犯的生命意义,是控制和预防罪犯自杀、自残、自伤以及凶杀、伤害等案件发生的重要措施。