In search of international criminal justice in Africa: What role for the United Nations?

The International Criminal Court (ICC) ran into considerable controversy almost immediately after its creation. More than 10 years later, the tension between the court and the AU is palpable. The court’s perceived political prosecutions as well as procedural flaws in light of the power bestowed on the UN Security Council under Article 13(b) of the Rome Statute are some of the areas of contention. However, despite the obvious flaws of the ICC, there is also widespread scepticism that the AU can be trusted to mobilise sufficient political will to deliver justice on the continent, more so in cases where the perpetrators are sitting heads of state or government. In lieu of cooperation with the ICC and the UN, can the AU deliver justice to victims of gross human rights abuses? Are extraordinary African Chambers such as the one created in Senegal to try the former Chadian dictator Hissene Habre an alternative to the ICC? This article argues that it is only through a partnership of convenience between the AU and the UN that victims of human rights abuses on the continent can access justice. Furthermore, the article opines that calls for African states to withdraw from the ICC en mass must be vigorously opposed.     

State-backed discrimination against Shia Muslims in Malaysia

This article traces the origins of legalized discrimination, religious hatred, and systematic marginalization of a community of Malaysian Muslims – the Shias – perpetuated in the name of Islam. It demonstrates how a central government-derived fatwa (religious legal opinion) banning Shi’ism and the propagation of Shia teachings in the country since 1996 has been used to justify a range of human rights violations, not limited to the religious freedom of this minority group. Apart from Syariah legislation, the state has utilized this fatwa alongside other tools, including the religious bureaucracy and the media, to persecute Shia in Malaysia. Anti-Shia efforts are also supported and propagated by non-state Islamists who often work hand-in-hand with state actors.     

最低消费标准的法经济学分析及规制——以餐饮业为主要分析对象

关于最低消费标准的争议在理论界一直存在。细究之，餐饮业设置最低消费标准有收回成本的合理性基础，一味地采取禁止型规制并不能很好地保护消费者的利益。因此应将重点放在标准的合理设定和消费者的知情权的充分保障上。依此类推。在规制其他行业的最低消费标准时，立法者与司法者也同样应当谨慎对待。     

Civil society and the contemporary threat to religious freedom in Bangladesh

ABSTRACT

Against the international backdrop of rising religious tensions, this article explores contemporary civil society views on religious freedom in Bangladesh. It uses critical frame analysis of the corpus of civil society organizations’ (CSOs) submissions to the United Nations’ third cycle Universal Periodic Review (UPR), 2013–18. It provides a timely assessment of Bangladesh’s fulfilment of international obligations on religious freedom, and shows how the politicization of religion and the resultant conflict between ‘secularism’ and ‘extremism’ have been fuelling inter-communal tensions and religious intolerance. In particular, CSOs’ UPR submissions present powerful accounts of the principal human rights pathology affecting the country today, religious-based violence. This is accompanied by a narrative of police malpractice, judicial failings, discrimination, oppression and incitement. A further key finding is ‘situated knowledge’ or first-hand accounts of legal restrictions and government repression of civil society organizations. Consonant with the classical work of liberal theorists, we argue that unprecedented importance now attaches to safeguarding civil society criticality in order to defend religious freedom and uphold human rights in the Republic.     

Free Will,Punishment, and the Burden of Proof

Justifying state punishment presents a difficulty for those who deny that human actions are free in the sense required by moral responsibility. The argument I make in this article, following work done by Double, Vilhauer, and Sehon, is that those who believe that human beings do sometimes act freely face exactly the same difficulty, for no current account of freedom has the sort of evidentiary support that condemning a person to punishment requires; no current account could meet even the most minimal burden of proof. Recourse to purely preventive methods, such as are proposed for a system of quarantine of dangerous individuals, seems undesirable because of the absence of limits under such a system, limits like the requirements of proportionality and guilt. That same objection holds as well against proposals of non-retributive punishment. The adoption of a system of punishment, understood retributively or non-retributively, does not preclude the state even in theory from also adopting a system of preventive measures. The answer that I suggest is a system of limited deprivations of freedom justified in much the way the doctrine of takings is justified, along with the specific exclusion of purely preventive methods for competent individuals.     

我国商法的核心价值:逻辑展开与实践应用

总纲性规范的缺失以及以之为载体的商法核心价值的模糊是我国商事司法实践中法律适用困境的重要原因。为使我国商法理论研究与商事立法、司法等实务活动获得确定的价值指引，有必要对我国商法核心价值的逻辑展开及实践应用进行系统研究。商法的核心价值曾被普遍界定为效率或效益，但基于正本清源，应将其界定为自由，其内容主要表现为强化私法自治与经营自由。商法中自由价值的边界应立足于秩序价值进行界定。在商事立法、监管及审判活动中，应立足于自由与秩序的平衡，使商法核心价值的得到合理应用。     

A Weaker Union

正True love,freedom of choice and even wealth drive recent surge in divorce rate Wu Minqiang,70,has devoted a significant part of his life to providing free marriage counseling for couples considering a divorce.     

剥夺六大自由权的合宪性问题再探讨

把言论、出版、集会、结社、游行、示威自由的权利的剥夺作为资格刑的内容,没有宪法的明确授权或确认,存在宪法依据不足的问题。把言论、出版、集会、结社、游行、示威自由的权利的剥夺理解为限于"政治性"的范围之内,并不符合立法本意。     

教育的终极价值即启迪人们寻找自由

自有人类社会便有教育。教育活动发展到现在,我们在探索其意义时就不能仅仅局限于考察其对于个体知识增长的多寡和对于国家贡献的大小,而应该从深层次挖掘体味其"终极价值",即康德所说的:"教育就是通过强制来实现自由"。     

理性即自由:论斯宾诺莎的自然法观

斯宾诺莎是古典自然法学派的代表人物之一,他提出了“真观念”为认识的起点,再辅之以几何学的证明方式.斯宾诺莎认为上帝的法则就是自然规律.人是自然的一部分,所以人也要遵循自然规律,人的自然规律或者自然权利就是人努力保存自己,这是人的本性.斯宾诺莎从人性论出发,论述了在自然状态下,人的生活受到了被动情感的奴役,人们要通过理性来签订社会契约,建立国家来摆脱这种奴役,并对违约行为进行处罚.这种自由具备的伦理特征使得斯宾诺莎在古典自然法学家中的地位显得比较特殊.