The Legacy of the Northern Way?

Abstract

The Northern Way (NW) was a pan-regional, multi-level initiative between three English northern regions, set up to promote economic growth and close a £30 billion output gap. Some limited research on progress prior to 2006 exists, but hardly anything about achievements between 2008 and closure in 2011. This paper redresses the limitations with data from existing evaluations and key stakeholder interviews. Findings reveal that partners developed good collaborative working, gathered robust data on critical economic and social issues, and learnt much during 2004–2008. Between 2008 and 2011, activities were refocused on a narrower set of critical priorities and partners developed real policy learning and became a credible voice for the Northern regions. After closure, it became evident that NW left a ‘vacuum’ as an effective coordinator of evidence and views from three Northern regions. Many issues that it sought to address remain as critical today as they did when it was created.     

行政诉讼中作证性行政证明证据形式的认定研究

实践中的行政证明可划分为行政确认性行政证明和作证性行政证明两类。行政审判中将行政证明一概作为书证加以审查认定实质上是一种误区。行政主体作出行政证明的类别相异．其证据形式也应当区别对待。将作证性行政证明归入证人证言的证据形式是解除行政诉讼中作证性行政证明作为证据材料使用时面临困境的较好路径。     

私法概念之再研究——兼论私法观念的革命

私法概念的界定应当从研究市民社会的理论入手,并以家庭、市民社会和政治国家这三者的关系为基础。根据法律的调整对象是否为国家统治关系,可科学地界定私法。这种界定同时也实现了私法观念的革命,产生了新的私法观。对于今日中国的民法法典化而言,这种新的私法观有助于将未来的民法典建成宏伟大厦,而不是将其弄成"三根棒棒";对于民法的理论研究而言,这种新的私法观有助于丰富现有的民法理论,使其更加充实和丰满。     

“David Byrne really does love PowerPoint”: art as research on semiotics and semiotic technology

This article presents a reading of David Byrne's Envisioning Emotional Epistemological Information, an art work created with MicroSoft's presentation software PowerPoint, as an instance of creative research on semiotics and semiotic technology. It reveals commonalities and differences between Byrne's ideas about PowerPoint and related ideas from linguistics and semiotics, and is intended as a contribution to research on PowerPoint, and on semiotic technologies generally, as well as to efforts aimed at developing criteria for evaluating art as research on semiotics.     

Rethinking the Europe‐Taiwan relationship

This article attempts to construct an overview of Japan's defence problematique in the post‐cold war era. Its approach is to survey the historical legacies that have shaped Japan's defence policies and perceptions, and to assess how these fit, or do not fit, with the new security environment within which Japan now finds itself. The purpose is to argue that a policy of non‐offensive defence (NOD) could solve many of the difficult defence questions that Japan now faces. As a consequence, the discussion will concentrate mainly on military and political issues, mostly leaving aside questions of economic, societal and environmental security on the grounds that these issues interact less strongly with NOD. Section 1 considers the geopolitics of Japan's security that arise from its being an island country. Section 2 analyses some crucial historical considerations, particularly Japan's status as a great power, and the particular circumstances of its historical relationship with its neighbours. Section 3 looks at Japan's position during the cold war, examining how the legacies of its defeat in the Second World War blended into the demands placed upon it as a front‐line ally of the United States against Chinese and Soviet power. Section 4 surveys the actual and possible changes in Japan's security environment consequent upon the ending of the cold war. It focuses on Japan's relationships with the United States, the East Asian region, the international system as a whole, and finally on Japan's relationship with itself. Section 5 considers the requirements for a Japanese defence and security policy in the post‐cold war era.     

Autonomy,Reflexivity, Tragedy: Notions of Democracy in Camus and Castoriadis

Abstract

This paper looks at two 20th century theories of tragedy: those of Cornelius Castoriadis and Albert Camus. The theories that each proffer of this ancient cultural form are striking. Against more standard views, both theorists stress that tragedy is a cultural form that has only arisen historically in cultures whose forms of religious thought have been laid open to question. In this way, both argue that tragedy is an important democratic cultural form, which stages the confrontation between a no longer unquestionable divine order, and human autonomy. The intent of the paper, from the start, is a political one. It wants to place Camus alongside Castoriadis as a ‘post-Marxist’ thinker, who belongs meaningfully to what Dick Howard has called ‘the Marxian legacy’. More than this, it aims to do this by staging Camus' theorisation of tragedy, with Castoriadis', as a powerful riposte to the conservative criticism of democracy as a modern political form, that is, that it cannot muster sacral cultural forms forceful enough to meaningfully unite people beneath its banner.     

Autonomy of Art or the Dignity of the Artwork

Abstract

In this essay I want to show that while the concept of autonomy can hardly make a meaningful contribution to the understanding of contemporary artworks, the concept of the dignity of artwork can make such a contribution.     

Is Political Marketing New Words or New Practice in UK Politics?

ABSTRACT

This review of the literature on political marketing and the party most associated with it in the UK, New Labour, suggests that the relationship is not straightforward. Politicians are, for example, hesitant to use marketing language in public. The relationship is problema-tised along the three dimensions of: partial or total import into some or all of politics; functional or instrumental use by leading politicians, and the roles of transformer of politics, or transfer agent for techniques. The results suggest two responses. The first is more fieldwork into political marketing outside of electoral campaigning and inside policy making. The second is a reconceptualising of the relationship away from the transformation or transfer dimension, and towards political marketing as a methodology for understanding a very different, and very separate activity, namely politics.     

武装冲突法视野下的中国大国责任

中国大国责任的担当是全方位多领域的,从武装冲突法看主要有：依法使用武力,捍卫本国安全和领土完整;他国间（内）利益争端引发武装冲突时,不介入不干涉;联合国采取或授权军事行动时,积极支持或参加;局部战争严重威胁地区安全时,援助正义方;其他情势严重危害人类生存时,采取多种手段介入。     

“另案处理”监督机制探析

由于我国刑事诉讼法执行机制的立法缺位及《刑事诉讼规则》的效力低阶性,致使司法实务中缺失对＂另案处理＂的有效监督,文章对＂另案处理＂监督机制的可行性进行了探讨,指出应构建长效跟踪机制,延伸法律监督触角,强化＂另案处理＂的办理及监督机制。