A Review of Kyoto Protocol Adoption in Russia: Joint Implementation in Focus

Russia’s role in ‘animation’ of the Kyoto Protocol was crucial. Its initial vacillation on ratification was predominantly due to political bargaining with the EU. Domestic economic rationales [i.e. impacts of emission trading and Joint Implementation (JI) projects] were important to a much lesser extent and environmental motives did not seem to play any role in the decision. Since the Protocol entered into force, there have been significant delays in complete establishment of policy implementation frameworks, which are necessary for Russia to start benefiting from JI and emission trading. Only recently, in 2007, have GHG inventories and a national registry been established and the responsibilities for implementation of the Protocol and JI among the government departments have been distributed only to a certain extent. Some constraints hindering JI projects, such as vague legislation, an unfavourable economic climate, lack of commitment to JI projects, corruption, xenophobia, state and agency ‘capture’ still remain.      

侵权人不明的高楼落物侵权的法律规制

《侵权责任法》第87条对侵权人不明的高楼落物侵权责任的承担进行了规定,具有保障受害人得到补偿、统一司法实践、降低致害概率的积极意义。但是,该规定也存在许多不足之处,主要表现为不利于社会和谐、容易引发道德风险、预防功能不充分、适用前提不明确等,没有很好地解决高楼落物侵权所面临的困境。采取社会救济、高楼落物赔偿基金、保险赔偿等多种途径相结合的救济方式,行政法、刑法与《侵权责任法》相配合的惩罚制度,不仅可以使受害人得到及时的、充分的补偿,而且可以有效预防此类侵权损害的发生。     

Measuring longevity achievements under welfare interdependencies: a case for joint life expectancy indicators

Whereas period life expectancy constitutes an intuitive indicator of the survival conditions prevailing at a particular period, this paper argues that, given the existence of welfare interdependencies, that widespread indicator is nonetheless an incomplete measure of the longevity achievements relevant for human well-being. The central importance of coexistence for human-beings implies that usual life expectancy measures should be complemented by joint life expectancy indicators, which measure the average coexistence time under particular survival conditions. After a study of the theoretical foundations of ‘single’ and ‘joint’ life expectancy indicators, it is shown that joint life expectancy measures tend to enrich significantly the comparison of longevity achievements across countries and periods. Moreover, the introduction of joint life expectancy indicators—as a complement to conventional life expectancy measures—into multi-variable indexes such as the United Nations’ HDI is also shown to affect international rankings of standards of living to a non negligible extent.

Does Joint Physical Custody “Cause” Children’s Better Outcomes?

ABSTRACT

Policymakers and researchers are concerned with whether joint physical custody (JPC) produces better outcomes for children than sole custody. Although several review articles summarizing up to 61 empirical articles demonstrate very positive answers, many of the research designs used compromise the ability to claim that it is JPC per se—and not selection effects—that causes the effect. We discuss several research design issues, such as propensity score analysis, that can more powerfully probe the question of causality. Some studies have already been conducted employing these strategies and more are recommended and likely to soon be forthcoming. On the basis of this comprehensive review we conclude that JPC probably does cause benefits to children on average, and that social scientists can now provisionally recommend rebuttably presumptive JPC to policymakers.     

中国地方政府债务问题探讨

中国地方政府债务问题形成的主要原因,一是政府过多地、直接地参与经济活动,二是城市化加速导致地方政府举债。对于中国地方政府债务问题,总体判断仍为风险可控。一是地方政府加上中央政府的债务占GDP的比例在40%以内,远低于60%的债务率标准。二是中央政府有非常强的控制能力,在各级政府间平衡债权债务,使得中国加总的净债务率较低。三是中国整体的资产负债表仍然健康,尤其是中央政府保持相当健康的资产负债表。对地方政府债务问题,体制性的解决办法是治本之道。要从根本上解决中国地方政府不规范借债问题,须建立规范化的地方政府举债融资机制。     

投保人信赖利益保护问题

就如何维护投保人的信赖利益这一问题,理论上存在三种方案,即扩大合同成立的可能性、认定存在先合同义务以及扩大保险人的侵权责任范围.通过合同法或侵权法的一般原则来保护投保人的信赖利益均有可能侵蚀合同自由原则.相对而言,先合同义务理论实际上是一种理性平衡裁判术,在类型化的限制之下,既可维护合同自由,又可实现个案正义.     

中德侵权责任法一般条款比较

从一般条款的争论着手,对比中德侵权法一般条款的立法模式、所保护权益范围、侵权责任的过错和违法性要件,可知中国侵权法所设立的大小搭配的一般条款模式所保护的民事权益过于宽泛,限制了人们的自由发展,故在法律使用上应借鉴德国的模式作目的性限缩。在侵权责任的构成要件上也可借鉴德国的规定。     

On generalised estimating equations for vector regression

Generalised estimating equations (GEE) for regression problems with vector‐valued responses are examined. When the response vectors are of mixed type (e.g. continuous–binary response pairs), the GEE approach is a semiparametric alternative to full‐likelihood copula methods, and is closely related to Prentice & Zhao's mean‐covariance estimation equations approach. When the response vectors are of the same type (e.g. measurements on left and right eyes), the GEE approach can be viewed as a ‘plug‐in’ to existing methods, such as the vglm function from the state‐of‐the‐art VGAM package in R. In either scenario, the GEE approach offers asymptotically correct inferences on model parameters regardless of whether the working variance–covariance model is correctly or incorrectly specified. The finite‐sample performance of the method is assessed using simulation studies based on a burn injury dataset and a sorbinil eye trial dataset. The method is applied to data analysis examples using the same two datasets, as well as to a trivariate binary dataset on three plant species in the Hunua ranges of Auckland.     

建筑物区分所有权及专有权的概念辨析

建筑物区分所有权制度是近现代社会发展起来的一项新型不动产所有权制度。专有所有权是业主对其建筑物专有部分享有的专有、使用、收益和处分的权利,其性质为对空间的所有权。