论联邦最高法院在美国联邦制发展中的作用

在两百多年里,美国联邦制虽没有突破双重政府结构的基本特点,但在联邦和州之间的权力关系上发生较大变化,其中联邦最高法院发挥了重要作用。联邦最高法院利用违宪审查权一方面坚持维护联邦制的基本格局,另一方面又根据社会的变化不断调整联邦与州的关系。在处理联邦与州的权力划分问题上,联邦最高法院从起初的摇摆状态转变成重要的平衡力量,不仅促进了美国联邦制的发展,而且提升了自己在美国政治生活中的地位。     

澳门土地制度改变及其影响与纱纸契合法性问题

澳门基本法第七条规定,澳门境内的土地和自然资源,除在澳门特区成立前已依法确认的私有土地外,属于国家所有。土地制度的改变、土地所有权的改变,除了涉及澳门土地所属问题,还涉及澳门特区的成立和基本法的实施对澳门原有法律制度和司法程序的影响。具代表性的案例是去年澳门特区终审法院就观音堂地段的所有权和使用权的民事诉讼案所作出的裁决:在特区成立前未获依法确认为私有的土地,特区成立后就成为国家所有,也不能通过司法裁判确认这些土地的所有权或利用权为私有,无论有关诉讼是在特区成立之前还是之后提起的。也就是说,澳门从此再也不会有新的私人业权土地了,连"和平占有"也不能了。土地制度改变所带来的影响,可从上述观音堂地段的官司反映出来,未来可能还涉及棘手的离岛土地"纱纸契"的法律地位问题。本文以终审法院的有关裁决为例,进而讨论土地制度的改变对于土地"纱纸契"问题的影响。     

马航 MH17事件引发的国际法思考

2014年7月17日,马来西亚航空公司的一架客机在飞越乌克兰东部交战区域时被导弹击中坠毁,机组人员与乘客全部遇难。基于相关事实,认为根据现有国际条约,故意击落他国民航客机属于严重危害民用航空安全的犯罪行为,且违反了1949年《关于战时保护平民之日内瓦公约》的规定,构成了《国际刑事法院规约》中的“战争罪”。限于种种因素,国际刑事法院和国际法院很难对涉事的国家和个人实施管辖,但犯罪发生地国、航空器登记地国、罪犯藏匿地国乃至受害者国籍国等都可依普遍管辖权或其国内法的规定对本案实施管辖并对罪犯定罪量刑。     

我国司法解释存在的问题及对策

本文介绍了司法解释的含义及功能,认为传统的学术观念应与司法实践相结合;归纳了我国最高人民法院所作的司法解释的特点,指出了存在的问题,并提出了改进的建议。     

信息公开在欧盟法的发展与实践——以欧盟法院判决为解读文本

欧盟条约将获取欧盟议会、理事会、委员会等欧盟机构文件的权利确立为基本权利。欧盟法院在审理获取欧盟机构信息的案件中坚持获取欧盟机构文件是基本的条约权利、严格限制例外条件的适用、强调欧盟机构的举证责任等做法,可以为我国法院审理政府信息公开案件所借鉴。     

朝鲜王朝对明朝的“宗系之辨”及政治意义

明正德年间刊印的《大明会典》,因用了朱元璋在《皇明祖训》中对朝鲜评价的一句话,引起了朝鲜国王及大臣们的高度关注,他们针对这句话中的宗系和弑四王两个问题对明朝开始了长时期的奏辨活动。奏辨活动主要集中在嘉靖和万历两朝。该活动以万历年间续修的《大明会典》中增加了部分朝鲜宗系奏辨的内容后而告一段落。朝鲜王朝在这场奏辨活动中,不但得到了辨白的机会,也达到了向明朝证明朝鲜王朝的正统性及朝鲜王朝是礼义之邦之目的。明朝对朝鲜的奏辨活动给予积极的回应,在满足朝鲜要求的同时,也进一步巩固了中朝政治一体化关系。     

‘The Right to Enter Every Other State’ – The Supreme Court and African American Mobility in the United States

Abstract

In 1857, U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger B. Taney stated in the Dred Scott case that if one African American was free to move unhindered throughout the United States, then all African Americans, enslaved or otherwise, would have ‘the right to enter every other State’. Such a situation, he argued, was untenable. The Supreme Court thus suggested that if U.S. citizenship included a de facto right to mobility, then African Americans could not be considered citizens. Although not formally written into the U.S. Constitution, numerous Supreme Court rulings since 1857 have underpinned the right to mobility in the United States. Yet the ability to be mobile in the United States has been fundamentally intertwined with the construction of racial identities. It was the white settlers that were free to move westward, the mobile nomadic lifestyles of the peoples they encountered being understood as primitive and inferior. Native peoples subsequently became immobilized on reservations. Similarly, African Americans in the era of slavery were immobilized on plantations and movement away from plantation space was illicit, codified as illegal, and required the hidden networks of the Underground Railroad. An African American moving through white American spaces faced often deadly consequences. African Americans should, in the parlance of the times, ‘know their place’ and not have the ambition, or the right, to move freely around the USA. To explore these contentions, I draw on four landmark U.S. Supreme Court decisions that elaborate on the mobility, or curtailment thereof, of African Americans in the United States.     

Protective supervision: An inquiry into the relationship between child welfare and the court system

Protective Supervision, in most states, is defined in statute as an option in which the child is allowed to remain in the home of high-risk parents under the authority of the court, with supervision provided by the child protection system. Protective Supervision provides states an option to fulfill the federal mandate, as expressed in its guidance on the Child and Family Services Review, to assure that children are safely maintained in their homes whenever possible and appropriate. Nevertheless, there is a paucity of published work on this option. Further, the relationship between child protection and the judicial system, implicit in Protective Supervision, is rarely examined. In response to this dearth of information, an exploratory study was undertaken in Minnesota, funded by the Minnesota Department of Human Services. Data were derived from focus groups in every region of the state, with both child protection and judicial system participants. This study offers insights into the complicated nature of the partnership between two complex systems — child welfare and the court system. Currently, there is wide variation in how Protective Supervision is understood and practiced. However, where there is mutual respect between child welfare and the courts, Protective Supervision offers a useful tool.     

“一带一路”倡议下我国设立国际商事法庭的必要性

“一带一路”倡议对深化沿线各国商事交往提出了新的挑战,世界范围内现存的国际商事纠纷解决途径并不能满足处理“一带一路”倡议下可能产生国际商事纠纷的需要。结合“一带一路”倡议,通过对新加坡国际商事法庭和迪拜国际金融中心法院的研究,认为我国设立国际商事法庭有其必要性。必要性一方面在于国际商事法庭的自身优势,另一方面在于其可帮助我国处理不断激增的涉外案件、减少文化冲突等。     

国际海洋争端解决中的“不应诉”问题

争端当事国在国际诉讼中采取"不应诉"策略并非"离经叛道"之举,而是有着更深层次的战略考量。国际法院化解"不应诉"危机的经验表明,争端当事国并无应诉的法律义务,且并不必然导致不利判决。国际法院仍应恪守当事方程序平等原则,在确定存在管辖权的前提下,对案件的事实和法律问题作出令人信服的裁决。中国和俄罗斯近期选择不应诉"南海仲裁案"和"北极日出号案"的事例表明,海洋争端解决机制的强制性与例外规定之间的矛盾势必导致"不应诉"现象。在"不应诉"的尴尬情境下,国际仲裁庭的正当性、独立性、公正性和实效性面临考验。为避免"不应诉"危机的加深,国际仲裁庭宜采取"司法自限"这一路径,在案件的管辖权问题和实体问题方面作出更为谨慎的裁决。