The Roles Played by the Staff and Workers’ Representative Congress in the Formation of Work Regulations

Article 4 of the Labor Contract Law lays down the right of the Staff and Workers’ Representative Congress (SWRC) to deliberate on the formulation of (intra-enterprise) work regulations, but this has become a “soft” law in judicial practice. The judicial criteria for judging the validity of work regulations are in essence determined by the judge’s judgment on their reasonableness. As an important embodiment of Chinese politics, economics and culture, the transformation of the SWRC that accompanied the market economy has not negated its value as an indigenous traditional resource. The SWRC does not just enjoy deliberative rights in the formation of regulations, as clearly specified in constitutional law, but also has rights under the law in local legislation and practice. Hence the system of work regulations is neither a unilateral decision on the part of management nor a contract, but rather an autonomous norm developed through the SWRC mechanism. Given the mandatory nature of Article 4 of the Labor Contract Law, regulations will only be valid after they have gone through a democratic process. The further development of the theory of normative system formation should endow the SWRC with greater rights and integrate it smoothly with the collective contract system to standardize collective labor relations.     

Group Benefit and Protection of Pediatric Research Subjects: Grimes v. Kennedy Krieger and the Lead Abatement Study

The Maryland Court of Appeals in Grimes v. Kennedy Krieger Institute was sharply critical of the lead abatement study conducted by this Institute, an affiliate of Johns Hopkins University. Grimes ruled that investigators might, given the facts of the case, have a special relationship with subjects, thereby creating a duty of care that could, if breached, give rise to an action in negligence. This ruling has implications for pediatric research practices and long-standing disputes among informed people of good will about what pediatric studies should be permitted.     

Strategic Framing of Adat in Land-Acquisition Politics in East Sumba

This article is about the strategic use of adat arguments in the politics of large-scale land acquisition. While customary (adat) communities are commonly depicted as small local minorities living in the forests and being guardians of the environment, in many situations such communities occupy a majority position within the district. Majority adat communities are internally differentiated into categories of actors with varying and conflicting interests. This article focuses on Sumba in eastern Indonesia, where state and adat powers are not opposed but historically aligned. We analyse how five common ways of framing adat in Sumba are currently being deployed in land-acquisition politics, in situations supporting plantation land acquisition or protesting against farmers’ land dispossession. We draw attention to what we call ‘strategic adat framing’ as a political activity. The article calls for analysing the historical and social context of local deployments of adat for understanding the impact of current government pro-adat policies.     

Global standards for social work education and training

This paper explores the ways in which social workers can be helped to acquire the wider understanding of relevant legal frameworks which is currently necessary for child-centred practice, given the influence of an ecological perspective on such practice. It arises from the development of a module on child care social work and the community for the Post Qualifying Child Care Award by members of the Law and Social Work Departments at Brunel University. The authors believe that to reach beyond a tokenistic acknowledgement of the ecological perspective requires an understanding and experience of the complex layers which make up the widening and complex social worlds of the child. The paper explains how social workers were encouraged to appreciate both the ever-widening circles of potentially relevant law and the different roles through which law operates. It concludes that a deeper engagement with the legal implications of an ecological dimension to practice would make such practice more effective and would also help combat social exclusion and discrimination.     

The Family and Medical Leave Law

Abstract

This essay asks whether the Family and Medical Leave Law (1993) is feminist social policy, as it was touted to be by its political supporters. The study takes three approaches to feminism outlined by Lorber in her 2001 text, Gender Inequality: Feminist Theories and Politics, which considers women in their roles as mothers and workers. Data taken from a Department of Labor FMLA utilization study are then analyzed in the context of these three approaches to feminism. I conclude that the FMLA is not feminist in a substantive way despite its symbolic value.     

Testing Wagner's Law in India: A cointegration and causality analysis

The present study empirically analyzes the validity of Wagner's Law for Indian economy. With the use of annual time series data from 1970–71 to 2013–14, all the six versions of Wagner's Law have been analyzed to test the relationship between government expenditure and gross domestic product. Wagner's Law states that the economic growth is the causative factor of the growth of the public expenditure. The study applied the unit root test and cointegration test to find the long-run relationship between government expenditure and gross domestic product. The present study employed the various econometric techniques such as unit root test, cointegration, and causality analysis for empirical analysis. The empirical analysis under study inferred mixed results of Wagner's Law for Indian economy, where four versions, namely Peacock, Gupta, Guffman, and Musgrave, found valid for Indian economy. The study concluded that the Wagner's Law is valid for the Indian economy except the Pryor and Mann Versions of the Wagner's Law.     

依法遏制婚外恋论略

当前,我国每年约有40万个家庭解体,其主要原因就是婚外恋。本文简要分析了婚外恋的特点、原因及其后果,着重阐述了遏制婚外恋的措施,以保护妇女、儿童的合法权益,净化社会风气。     

决定论的含义与真假问题

古代已有因果决定论和神灵决定论,近代学者又以力学规律充实因果决定论而使之发展成严格定量的形式。从中可以看到决定论的基本含义:过去未来的一切皆有定数;其之形成根据则是因果关系和客观规律的普遍存在。但自由意志论却长期支持着非决定论的存在;现代科学又在微观过程和复杂系统中揭示出了许多新的不确定性现象,致使一些论者提出各种折衷性的弱决定论观点。然而我们通过对于各种新不确定性现象的实质分析表明,它们都不真是"本质上的偶然性",并不否定决定论的严格存在;而且人也并没有超越神经生理活动的自由意志。真正使决定论不能成立的乃是世界的无限性:无限世界是不能完成综合的,故而不是一个可总括的整体或系统,因果规律对其不能适用;同时,无限世界中的有限系统和事物也因会有无限的外来影响因素而不能有决定论的未来定数。     

论美国新移民法的国际影响

美国新移民法的立法宗旨在于限制低素质移民入境的同时,吸引外籍高素质人才和外国资金;它对发展中国家所产生的政治、经济和社会影响将是深远的.发展中国家有必要采取相应的法律对策.     

论《物权法》颁布前后中国私营企业主阶层的政治走向

在《物权法》颁布以前,其作为改革的最大受益者——中国私营企业主中的大多数并没有表现出多少对改革直接参与的热情与积极,而《物权法》颁布后,私营企业主阶层对政治参入的热情与积极性空前提高,这不仅由于《物权法》进一步明确了私营企业主阶层的社会属性,而且通过对包括私营企业主在内的各阶层物质利益和私有财产的一系列法律规定,使得他们创造、积累财富的积极性得到激发,进而对国家和社会产生应有的政治归属感和社会责任感,不但在新的政治舞台上发出更多的声音,而且逐步为国家和社会多做贡献和注意协调与其他社会群体的关系,在促进社会主义民主政治发展和维护政治、社会稳定上发挥积极的作用。