中国信托法具体修改建议

五年来的实践告诉我们,现行法律制度的确暴露出一些缺失和不足。在21世纪科学发展日新月异的今天,我国信托法的修改与完善已是迫在眉睫,否则将影响我国信托业的发展,影响我国经济建设和金融市场。鉴于此,在中日信托法研究会同仁一年多来研究成果的积淀下,笔者对中国信托法的修改与完善作了一些粗浅的论述,并通过第二届中国(长沙)信托国际论坛向与会代表与各位方家作以汇报,旨在抛砖引玉,敬请批评指正。     

Effects of organizational change on managerial trust in the context of employee buyout in India

Tea gardens face a threat of closure. Due to labour problems and pricing mechanism, Indian tea companies are unable to perform well on the global scene. The case of Tata Tea plantations in South India has been taken for this research study. An employee buyout strategy is introduced in a select number of tea estates. Results prove unfruitful initially. However, employees agree with this idea with a fear of loss of job. The new strategy turns out to be a success. The relationship between organizational change and managerial trust in the context of employee buyout is studied. A questionnaire is administered upon a sample of 100 respondents. Results are shown as a table. The article concludes by citing key issues for a successful buyout programme.     

论受托人的权利及其限制

各国的信托法均赋予了受托人较为广泛的权利,同时为了避免受托人滥用权利,对这些权利的行使也作了一定的限制.在对各国相关立法比较的基础上,着重论述了我国<信托法>中的受托人享有的各项权利的含义、法理基础、主要规定及其行使的限制.     

论我国反垄断法域外效力原则的定位

赋予反垄断法以域外效力是适应经济全球化的必然要求.我国反垄断法规定域外效力原则有利于遏制和预防国际垄断行为对中国经济产生的不利影响.反垄断法域外效力原则在立法实践中有多种形式,其核心在于反垄断法域外效力原则的定位.正确定位我国反垄断法域外效力原则对于我国在国际经济交往中避免争议和选择性司法有重要意义.     

法律信任初论

当下中国学者的法律信仰研究的理论前设和结果实际上是对法律的神化.然而,法律具有不可克服的内在局限性,这决定我们在法律之上只能产生法律信任,即理性主体对这种具有不可克服的内在局限性的法律的宽容和尊重.从本体意义上说,法律信任是一种关系性质的信任,它以三大支配关系为特征.从价值意义上说,法律信任是法律权威性的直接来源.     

Trusting and Joining? An Empirical Test of the Reciprocal Nature of Social Capital

This article tests a key hypothesis of the social capital literature: voluntary memberships and generalized trust reproduce one another. Panel data from the Michigan Socialization Studies from 1965 to 1982 are used to test the contemporaneous and lagged effects of interpersonal trust on joining groups and the contemporaneous and lagged effects of joining groups on interpersonal trust. We find no evidence supporting the hypothesis that interpersonal trust encourages group memberships and only limited evidence suggesting that belonging to groups makes individuals more trusting.     

Low‐trust bureaucracy: Understanding the Mexican bureaucratic experience

Latin American bureaucracies are notorious for their inefficiency and opacity, yet there is very little empirical research done on what exactly constitutes the “bureaucratic experience” for citizens and what the costs of bureaucratic dysfunction are. To improve our understanding of this topic, 5 cases of Mexican citizens' encounters with public bureaucracies are used to develop the notion of “low‐trust bureaucracy”: public organisations in which access to services is unreliable and the levels of control towards both citizens and bureaucrats are excessive. This bottom‐up analysis of administrative practices contributes to our understanding of the ineffectiveness of government programmes and services, but also of how bureaucracies in developing countries amplify social inequality rather than function as a social equaliser. Furthermore, this article adds new insights to the existing understanding of administrative burdens as a result of either political tactics or mere benign neglect. The data presented here suggest that structural and intractable characteristics of the broader administrative context, such as authoritarian legacies, can produce behavioural patterns that shift bureaucratic attention away from a fair and efficient service provision.     

How Can Business Share Responsibility for Disaster Resilience?

This paper contributes to knowledge of disaster resilience policy implementation in Australia and proposes measures to strengthen partnerships between government and the business sector to enhance national disaster resilience capacity. In Australia, business makes a significant contribution to disaster relief and recovery. Even so, there are unexplored opportunities to enhance the role of business in disaster resilience, particularly through partnerships with government. The extent that state, regional and local‐level disaster plans engage business in disaster relief and recovery is described and their relatively less prominent involvement in disaster resilience is discussed. Examples of disaster resilience policies and their capacity to influence business practices to support disaster resilience are introduced with suggestions for how they can be enhanced. Some potential benefits and pitfalls of public–private sector collaboration are explored and it is noted that, in disaster resilience settings, these risks can be ameliorated through appropriate implementation.     

Trust in international organizations: An empirical investigation focusing on the United Nations

The literature on social capital has strongly increased in the last two decades, but there still is a lack of substantial empirical evidence about the determinants of international trust. This empirical study analyzes a cross-section of individuals, using micro-data from the World Values Survey, covering 38 countries, to investigate trust in international organizations, specifically in the United Nations. In line with previous studies on international trust we find that political trust matters. We also find that social trust is relevant, but contrary to previous studies the results are less robust. Moreover, the paper goes beyond previous studies investigating also the impact of geographic identification, corruption and globalization. We find that a higher level of (perceived) corruption reduces the trust in the UN in developed countries, but increases trust in developing and transition countries. A stronger identification with the world as a whole also leads to a higher trust in the UN and a stronger capacity to act globally in economic and political environment increases trust in the UN.

Trustworthiness: the Commentators

Mark Thompson deplores the decline in the public trust of government and of public service institutions such as the BBC. But there has also been a decline in another form of trust: government's trust in the ability of professionals such as doctors and teachers to deliver high quality public services. And, unlike Thompson's type of trust, this decline was inevitable, because it was based on untenable assumptions concerning professional motivation. The author discusses the importance of trust in an unwritten constitution, including trust in the use made of public resources, trust that appointments are being made on merit, trust that the civil service is ‘speaking truth unto power’ behind the scenes and ultimately trust that it retains the ability to serve future governments. In a world where trust in institutions is diminishing, there are still surprising levels of trust in the world of private philanthropy. The public are only too ready to give donations without seeking to question, especially in the wake of major disasters. Yet the nature of aid agencies has changed dramatically in the past thirty years into major global enterprises with sophisticated media and marketing operations. In this case a greater degree of scepticism from those who donate and paradoxically less trust might actually result in better outcomes from aid and better use of funding. Trust is critical to the mission of the FCO. The public needs to trust the competence and sound judgment of the professional diplomats. The diplomats themselves need to be able to rely on the commonsense of their fellow colleagues. Ministers and diplomats need to trust each other. And other governments need to have confidence in the discretion of their British counterparts. This is an increasing challenge in the world of instant news. Trust can be quickly lost by indiscreet or self‐serving revelations. But the key is to be as open and transparent as possible about the processes of diplomacy. A new survey commissioned by the British Journalism Review demonstrates that public confidence in journalism has collapsed over the last five years. This is particularly true for the commercial broadcasters ITV and Channel 4, whose journalism has traditionally commanded as much public esteem as the BBC. Trust in the BBC and print journalists has also declined, and journalism suffered more than any of the other 16 occupational groups being assessed. This is partly due to the cumulative effect of various “fakery” scandals that have afflicted broadcasters over the last 18 months and partly down to a more widespread cynicism directed at those in authority.