Stepping Up to the Plate: Minor Leaguers Attempt to Remedy their Unconscionable Plight

Professional baseball players are often thought of as making multi-million-dollar salaries, but most professional baseball players have recently made under $15,000 a year. Minor league players toiled under an onerous system resulting from baseball's judicially created antitrust exemption and lobbying efforts that exempted them from minimum wage and overtime. These factors allowed teams to impose a uniform player contract (UPC) on players with numerous unconscionable provisions for years. However, a late-night Tweet in August of 2022 sent shockwaves through the sports and labor world, announcing that the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) was sending out authorization cards to represent minor league players. After years of fighting to maintain the authority to impose conditions on minor league players, through lobbying and litigation, Major League Baseball (MLB) turned over a new leaf and recognized the unionization of minor league players under the MLBPA less than three weeks later. In light of this long sought-after recognition, this article takes a novel approach. First, it provides historical context for baseball's unique ability to impose working conditions on minor leaguers without significant concern for legal ramifications. Second, it provides an overview of the doctrine of contractual unconscionability and analyzes the prior UPC as an unconscionable agreement. Finally, it details the historic unionization process and makes detailed recommendations to ameliorate the unconscionable conditions minor league players have faced when they negotiate with MLB owners to draft their initial collective bargaining agreement.     

"小城故事"的演叙、媒介杂糅与魔幻叙事

文学、艺术的创作应与社会史密切相关.书写城镇故事的叙事称之为"小城叙事".在传统的"小城叙事"中,通过语言讲述乡土伦理的"演叙"占据主流.20世纪80年代以后,在"小城叙事"中,"演叙"与工业化冲击下所产生的作品中的"消息"杂糅,而且随着城镇化日益锲入工业化,小城叙事的"消息"性质日益凸显.20世纪90年代末与新世纪之交,当代中国城镇的消费化、媒介化与虚拟化日益严重,仪式性的"演叙"传统变得面目全非,呈现魔幻化的叙事凸显.贾樟柯的系列作品是对当代中国城镇变化历程的清晰展示,在他的《三峡好人》中开始出现了人们直面城镇废墟化的存在主义勇气.     

Red Tape,Rule Burden,and Legitimate Performance Trade-Offs: Results from a Vignette Experiment

Abstract

Goals in the public sector are complex and managers can face situations in which pursuing one legitimate goal necessitates performance trade-offs in other areas. This study tests how knowledge of legitimate performance trade-offs shapes the perception of red tape. Using a vignette experimental design and a sample of university students, between group t-tests and regression analyses suggest that, when evaluating increased rule burden, individuals that are provided with information about how objectively burdensome rules serve alternative values such as equity and effectiveness associate them with lower levels of red tape. A series of Monte Carlo simulations suggest that this effect is substantial.     

公司立法理念的选择——以中西法律传统比较为视角

“法律是什么?”这一问题曾被反反复复地提出,又由严肃的思想家们以形形色色、奇特的甚至反论的方式予以回答。〔1〕然而由于中西社会文明、文化传统、历史发展的不同,法的概念似乎难成定论,法律所内涵的精神也各有不同。在中西公司立法中,法律条文更多地或强调国家强制,或彰显私法自治,不同法律理念的选择正是不同法律文化传统的必然产物。一、中国的礼法文化与公司立法中的国家强制(一)追溯中国法律传统中的礼法文化礼主宰着中国传统文化的命脉。尽管礼源自古老的祭祀仪式,但是在长期的封建统治中,礼成为维系国家秩序的工具。从法的角度说…     

马克思世界历史视野中人的全面发展

世界历史是马克思对资本主义以来人类历史发展趋向的科学概括,人的全面而自由的发展是马克思终其一生所追求的最高价值目标。世界历史的前途是共产主义,而共产主义正是人的全面自由发展的社会,在那里,人的全面发展的逻辑与历史的双重内涵达到了最后的统一。因此,世界历史与人的全面而自由的发展是一个统一的历史进程。     

对法律事实建构论的初步阐释——以主体间性为分析进路的思考

诉讼法学界关于客观真实与法律真实的争论是针对法律事实的认定标准所产生的分歧,但是,争论并没有跳出主观与客观、事实与价值、形式与实质这种二元对立的思维模式。而要探究法律事实的形成,必须重新考察诉讼活动的性质,进而实现分析进路由主体性向主体间性的转换。法律事实建构论的提出就是这种分析进路转换之后的结果,但值得注意的是,我们必须对法律事实建构论的限度保持必要的警醒。