法国共产党的现状与未来

法国共产党曾经是一支强大的政治力量,二战结束后一度成为法国最大的左翼党,在整个欧洲地区都颇具影响力。然而在20世纪80年代后,法国共产党开始衰退。直至在2007年的总统选举中,法共遭到惨败。那么,法共是如何从至高点一步一步走入今天的困境的?面对困境,法共又将作出怎样的改革和调整?带着这些问题,本刊特约记者专访了法共中央委员、法国加布里埃·佩里基金会会长米歇尔·马索教授。     

Judges Taken Too Seriously: Professor Dworkin's Views on Jurisprudence*

Abstract. The author analyses Ronald Dworkin's ideas about legal theory and legal philosophy, with particular regard to metatheoretical and methodological problems. He focuses on the questions of the function and the object of jurisprudence, and on those of the content and method of argumentation of jurisprudence. According to the author, Dworkin's theory is a normative theory, an ideology referred to the judicial practice. Although judges really make law, one can deny that they do. This strategy is the one judges traditionally employ when they say that they are merely applying the law-giver's intentions or fundamental principles that existed long before the case they have to decide. It is that discourse, not rights, that Dworkin takes seriously.     

THE STATE AND THE THREAT OF CASCADING FAILURE ACROSS CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURES: THE IMPLICATIONS OF EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE FROM MEDIA INCIDENT REPORTS

The threat of cascading failures across critical infrastructures has been identified as a key challenge for governments. Cascading failure is seen as potentially catastrophic, extremely difficult to predict and increasingly likely to happen. Infrastructures are largely privately operated and private actors are thought to under‐invest in mitigating this threat. Consequently, experts have demanded a more dominant role for government, including the use of regulation. Empirical evidence on cascading failure is, however, extremely scarce. This paper analyses new data drawn from news reports on incidents. We find that, contrary to current thinking, cascades are not rare. Neither do they indicate a wide array of unknown dependencies across infrastructures. Rather, we find a small number of focused, unidirectional pathways around two infrastructures: energy and telecommunications. We also found that most cascades were stopped quickly, in contrast to the oft‐cited ‘domino effect'. These findings undermine the case for more intrusive public oversight of critical infrastructures.     

The Aftermath of 11 September 2001: Liberty vs. Security before the Supreme Court of Canada

The terrorist acts of 11 September 2001 and the war on terrorismthat followed have induced a pervasive sense of insecurity inCanada, as elsewhere, and brought about a shift of public policytowards a confinement of security risks in a global era. Inthe polity, as in the legal sphere, there has been an obviousshift of paradigm, from liberty to security. In December 2001,Canada passed an Anti-Terrorism Act. As far as human rightsand freedoms are concerned, the Anti-Terrorism Act is a farcry from the draconian measures of the American Patriot Act,with its military tribunals, incommunicado confinement, preventivedetention without charge, and potentially expeditious applicationof the death penalty. Nevertheless, the Canadian Anti-TerrorismAct remains, in nature, an emergency legislation. In particular,as will be seen here, there has been a clear change of mind,within the Supreme Court of Canada, regarding the authorityof international human rights law, at least where highly sensitivesecurity matters are involved, such as deportation of politicalrefugees suspected of being linked with terrorist organisations. To emphasize this shift in attitude, an analytical framework,allowing us to distinguish between various types of constitutionalreasoning, is needed. This heuristic device must also be sophisticatedenough to single out the emergency situation from the normalstate of affairs. This may not be apparent in day-to-day life,but, since 11 September, the concept of emergency, and the notionthat an exceptional state of affair exists, have been a majorinfluence on our political world.     

De la Monarchie

SUMMARY

In this article Michel Peronnct discusses the problem of finding a clear, unambiguous terminology, based on contemporary texts, for the comparative discussion of political societies by historians. It takes as its example the classifications of Monarchy. The use of a priori categories, invented by the historians themselves, such as ‘absolutism’ or ‘enlightened despotism’ is argued to be unsatisfactory as such invented terminology cannot yield the necessary clarity. The paper concentrates on the comparison between the French and the English monarchies both of which originated as ‘consultative monarchies’ based on divine right, where the prince is sovereign but by custom takes advice from groups of his subjects, while retaining for himself the ultimate decision making power. This basic monarchical type can continue over long periods of time, as it did in France down to 1789 or it can develop in two directions. Rulers may, over time reduce or even discontinue the consultative processes, leading to autocratic monarchy, of which Joseph II of Austria would be an example. Or as in England the consultative institutions may develop an increasingly representative character and build on this to enforce limitations on the final decision making powers of the prince, producing the third type, representative monarchy. It is shown how this typology can be derived from contemporary texts and argued that it can offer a reliable system of classification for the purpose of comparative analysis.