The European Commission's Opinions under Article 6(4) of the Habitats Directive

The contribution examines the Opinions which the European Commissionhas issued so far under Article 6(4) of Directive 92/43 (HabitatsDirective). It examines Member States' reasoning for justifyingthe application of Article 6(4) of the Habitats Directive inthe light of the European Court of Justice rulings, and comesto the conclusion that probably not one of the cases submittedwould have been accepted by the Court.     

网络时代物权原则的确立

互联网络基于其自身的特殊性,已经对物权法制产生了许多重要影响,其中,尤为突出的是它动摇了物权法定原则存在的合理性基础,使意思自治能够全面在物权法领域得以贯彻.然而关于网络对物权法乃至民法的影响,基本上没有引起学者的注意.因此,在我国目前正在准备起草制定物权法和民法典时,深入研究互联网络对物权法和民法的影响,不仅对丰富和发展物权法和民法理论具有重要意义,而且也对物权法和民法典的制定具有重要的现实意义.     

“You must be joking”: the role of humour in the law classroom

There is a body of literature, including persuasive empirical evidence, linking the use of positive humour in tertiary classrooms with the creation of a relaxed learning environment, student motivation, attendance and engagement as well as positive student evaluations of teacher performance. However, the literature on the use of humour in teaching law is generally limited to anecdotal evidence. Drawing on the literature on using humour in teaching courses that students perceive as “difficult” in other disciplines, in this article we explore the benefits and pitfalls of using humour in the law classroom and provide illustrations of how humour might be used appropriately and effectively in teaching law.     

“To This Day She Continues to Struggle with the Terror Imposed upon Her”: Rape Narratives in Victim Impact Statements

This study locates the victim impact statements of raped women in the sociolegal context of significant sentencing law reforms introduced in Canada to address an ascendant victim’s rights movement. We examine 38 reported sentencing decisions in sexual assault cases in Ontario, Canada (1999–2010). Our objectives are to discern (a) whether the archetype of the ideal victim continues to influence juridical discourse after conviction and (b) what narratives of harm intersect with sentencing objectives and aggravating factors. Our findings suggest women express profound fear of re-victimization and traumatic effects of sexual violence regardless of the relational context of their rape experience. Most surprisingly, our data show sentencing judges view the sexual assault of an intoxicated rape victim as an aggravating factor. Future consideration for victim impact statements in sexual assault cases is discussed.     

Substitution of human for horse urine disproves an accusation of doping*

In order to detect switching and/or manipulation of samples, the owner of a stallion asked our lab to perform a DNA test on a positive doping urine sample. The objective was to compare the urine DNA profile versus blood and hair DNA profiles from the same stallion. At first, 10 microsatellite markers were investigated to determine the horse identity. No results were obtained when horse specific markers were typed in the urine sample. In order to confirm the species origin of this sample we analyzed the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene. This analysis from blood and hair samples produced reproducible and clear PCR-RFLP patterns and DNA sequence match with those expected for horse, while the urine sample results were coincident with human. These results allowed us to exclude the urine sample from the questioned stallion and determine its human species origin, confirming the manipulation of urine sample.     

Does business influence government regulations? New evidence from Canadian impact assessments

Regulatory impact assessments frequently embed stakeholder consultations in their design. Canada was one of the early adopters of such an approach and therefore has systematic documentation on the actors taking part in these consultations. This article asks whether these consultations have an influence on regulatory change and whether business disproportionally benefits from them. After converting the documentation into data, we find that these consultations do in fact matter: the more diversified the stakeholders taking part, the more stringent the changed regulations. But we also found that for a subset of regulatory changes, those likely to carry high economic stakes, business takes advantage of the consultation, often obtaining some reduction in regulatory stringency. These reductions, however, are conditioned on the limited presence of opposing views expressed during the consultations.     

Mainstreamed voluntary sustainability standards and their effectiveness: Evidence from the Honduran coffee sector

Voluntary Sustainability Standards have become a popular private governance framework for more sustainable agri-food value chains. Yet, amid increasing concerns over the decoupling of standards and practices, it is still unclear to what extent agricultural standard requirements are implemented on the ground, and what may account for such differential implementation. This study employs a novel dataset of 659 Honduran coffee producers to examine this puzzle, focusing on the most widely used standards in the coffee sector (Common Code for the Coffee Community, Fairtrade, Fairtrade/organic, UTZ Certified, and Rainforest Alliance). It first presents results on implementation and behavioral change, based on matched groups of certified and non-certified farmers, for eight representative social and environmental sustainability practices. Analyzing determinants of implementation success, it finds that the stringency of rules – if they are known by farmers – and the level of farm-gate prices are significantly correlated with farmers’ performance and lower levels of decoupling across a majority of indicators. These results speak to the importance of supporting small-scale actors’ awareness of and financial capacity to comply with proposed sustainability rules.     

我国宏观经济运行态势与积极财政政策的实施

当前我国经济运行的特点是较高经济增长伴随着价格水平偏低和失业率升高，经济运行出现复杂局面。中央政府几年采坚持实施积极财政政策，保持了经济持续稳定增长。由于居民消费支出增长缓慢，劳动力供大于求，价格走低和失业升高还难以改变，因此，积极财政政策短期内还难以“淡出”，她仍然是今后一段时期内我国宏观经济调控的主要政策选择。     

A Memorial for jeremy bentham: memory,fiction, and writing the law

At a moment when the European Union and globalisation are, in their different contexts, bringing systems of traditional law (like the Common Law), whose texts are presented as monuments to historical legal cultures, into confrontation with systems of written law which claim to be rational embodiments of universal principles of liberal justice, how might we remember Jeremy Bentham, the pioneer of the critique of the former in the name of the latter? This essay in ‘law-and-literature’ looks at the relation between memory, fiction and writing in both the Common Law and in the two last projects for which the radical legal positivist sought to be remembered: the Constitutional Code for the Use of All Nations and All Governments Professing Liberal Opinions (1830) and Auto-Icon: Or, Farther Uses of the Dead to the Living (published posthumously in 1842). By examining Bentham’s linguistic theory and practice, the article raises questions about the relations between the ‘law’ of writing and the writing of law.     

关于"见死不救"的两个刑法问题

把公序良俗和社会公德所要求履行的某些作为义务即重大道德义务视为不作为犯罪的作为义务,这种作法在国外已有立法先例.虽然目前我国尚无此类立法,但在实战中,司法机关也通常适用不作为犯罪理论来 裁判"见死不救"行为,在理论上,学者们对此已有所认同.鉴于此,完全有必要通过具体的刑事立法来调整"见死不救"行为,而不仅仅是笼统地"借用"犯罪理论来规制此类日渐严重的社会现象.