Posts by: 爱德布克

《经济学家》2014年最佳图书

参考:《经济学家》年度最佳图书:2011201220132015201620172018

The best books of 2014 were about the South China Sea, the fall of the Berlin Wall, Kaiser Wilhelm II, the publishing of “Ulysses” and capitalism in the 21st century

Politics and current affairs


The People’s Republic of Amnesia: Tiananmen Revisited. By Louisa Lim. Oxford University Press; 248 pages; $24.95 and £16.99. Buy from Amazon.com
Twenty-five years after the bloodshed in Beijing, new details keep emerging. This reconstruction, by a correspondent for America’s National Public Radio, is as important for Western readers as it is for the new Chinese generation that has grown up since 1989 and knows little of what happened.


The Tyranny of Silence: How One Cartoon Ignited a Global Debate on the Future of Free Speech. By Flemming Rose. Cato Institute; 240 pages; $24.95. Buy from Amazon.com
The culture editor of the Danish newspaper that published cartoons about the Prophet Muhammad in 2005 offers a personal account of the ensuing controversy and what it means for democracy.

赵士兵:“自干五”是社会主义核心价值观的坚定践行者

话语标本 · DISCOURSE SPECIMEN

《光明日报》2014年11月15日10版

近段时间以来,来自网上两个群体的论战很是热闹。

一个群体以“公知”为名,将“公民”与“知识分子”二者身份结合起来。他们专找现实社会中的阴暗面进行无限放大,引用几段洋人语录就开始在网上信口雌黄,睁眼说瞎话,专挑社会和政府的不是。

还有一个群体叫“自干五”,全称为“自带干粮的五毛”,指那些自觉自愿为社会正能量点赞、为中国发展鼓劲的网民。贬损“自干五”的人说,“自干五”连收钱发帖的“五毛党”都不如,不收钱,只能“自带干粮”。

在此,笔者要旗帜鲜明地站在“自干五”的角度说几句话,因为他们是在实事求是的前提下对污蔑中国的言论进行理性、历史、客观的辟谣、解释和批判。他们不像“网络水军”那样拿钱发帖,而是废寝忘食地自费查资料、找理论;他们鼓励理性思考,习惯引用文献和已有资料来论证自己的观点,而不是盲目占据什么“道德制高点”;他们对能够提供资料并理性思辨者持有宽容态度——这与那些戴着有色眼镜看社会,用尖刻、嘲弄的语言来攻击政府和社会现实的所谓“公知”和“精英”有着本质的不同。

你看“自干五”们,他们遵纪守法,爱国敬业,希望祖国富强繁荣、社会公正廉明,倡导自由民主、知行合一,文明辩论。他们自觉地遵守并践行社会主义核心价值观,其行为无疑充满正能量。

波斯纳法官“无情杀戮”反同性恋婚姻主张

Above the Law 的报道 “Judge Posner’s Blistering Benchslaps At The Same-Sex Marriage Arguments”

As we mentioned in Morning Docket and on Twitter, yesterday’s Seventh Circuit arguments weren’t fun for the defenders of Wisconsin and Indiana’s same-sex marriage bans. The three judges, especially Judge Richard Posner, were tough — very tough.

Chris Geidner of BuzzFeed, a leading chronicler of marriage-equality litigation, described the proceedings as “the most lopsided arguments over marriage bans at a federal appeals court this year.” Ian Millhiser of ThinkProgress called it “a bloodbath.”

That’s no exaggeration. Let’s check out the specifics….

A Seventh Circuit panel consisting of Judge Richard Posner, Judge Ann Claire Williams, and Judge David F. Hamilton heard argument on Tuesday in two cases: Baskin v. Bogan, a challenge to Indiana’s statutory ban on same-sex marriage, and Wolf v. Walker, a challenge to Wisconsin’s constitutional ban on same-sex marriage. You can listen to the arguments here (Baskin) and here (Wolf).

《连线》独家专访:爱德华·斯诺登:不为人知的故事

WIRED: Edward Snowden: The Untold Story

THE MESSAGE ARRIVES on my “clean machine,” a MacBook Air loaded only with a sophisticated encryption package. “Change in plans,” my contact says. “Be in the lobby of the Hotel ______ by 1 pm. Bring a book and wait for ES to find you.”

ES is Edward Snowden, the most wanted man in the world. For almost nine months, I have been trying to set up an interview with him—traveling to Berlin, Rio de Janeiro twice, and New York multiple times to talk with the handful of his confidants who can arrange a meeting. Among other things, I want to answer a burning question: What drove Snowden to leak hundreds of thousands of top-secret documents, revelations that have laid bare the vast scope of the government’s domestic surveillance programs? In May I received an email from his lawyer, ACLU attorney Ben Wizner, confirming that Snowden would meet me in Moscow and let me hang out and chat with him for what turned out to be three solid days over several weeks. It is the most time that any journalist has been allowed to spend with him since he arrived in Russia in June 2013. But the finer details of the rendezvous remain shrouded in mystery. I landed in Moscow without knowing precisely where or when Snowden and I would actually meet. Now, at last, the details are set.

Continue to read the full text.

New Book: Corruption in America: From Benjamin Franklin’s Snuff Box to Citizens United. By Zephyr Teachout

Corruption in America: From Benjamin Franklin’s Snuff Box to Citizens UnitedZephyr Teachout, Corruption in America: From Benjamin Franklin’s Snuff Box to Citizens United, Harvard University Press 2014. ISBN 9780674050402. 384 pages

When Louis XVI presented Benjamin Franklin with a snuff box encrusted with diamonds and inset with the King’s portrait, the gift troubled Americans: it threatened to “corrupt” Franklin by clouding his judgment or altering his attitude toward the French in subtle psychological ways. This broad understanding of political corruption—rooted in ideals of civic virtue—was a driving force at the Constitutional Convention.

For two centuries the framers’ ideas about corruption flourished in the courts, even in the absence of clear rules governing voters, civil officers, and elected officials. Should a law that was passed by a state legislature be overturned because half of its members were bribed? What kinds of lobbying activity were corrupt, and what kinds were legal? When does an implicit promise count as bribery? In the 1970s the U.S. Supreme Court began to narrow the definition of corruption, and the meaning has since changed dramatically. No case makes that clearer than Citizens United.

In 2010, one of the most consequential Court decisions in American political history gave wealthy corporations the right to spend unlimited money to influence elections. Justice Anthony Kennedy’s majority opinion treated corruption as nothing more than explicit bribery, a narrow conception later echoed by Chief Justice Roberts in deciding McCutcheon v. FEC in 2014. With unlimited spending transforming American politics for the worse, warns Zephyr Teachout, Citizens United and McCutcheon were not just bad law but bad history. If the American experiment in self-government is to have a future, then we must revive the traditional meaning of corruption and embrace an old ideal.

高峰枫:谁的“燕京学堂”?

2014年5月5日,北京大学宣布正式启动“北京大学燕京学堂”计划(Yenching Academy,Peking University)。根据北大的官方介绍,这是一个独立建制的教学科研实体机构。燕京学堂为住宿式学院,将开设一年制的“中国学”硕士项目,包括“哲学与宗教”、“历史与考古”、“语言、文学与文化”、“经济与管理”、“法律与制度”和“公共政策”六个方面的课程体系,主要以英文讲授。2015年9月,第一届学生即将入校,其中包括六十五名海外学生、三十五名中国大陆学生,所有人都将获得全额奖学金。教师的配置,是从北大现有教师中联合聘任三十人,从国内外招聘“杰出学者”二十人,并邀请“国际顶尖访问教授”二十人。

虽然目前公布的资料和数据都不多,但根据有限的报道,可大体获知这一新机构的办学宗旨和特色。我对于“燕京学堂”在命名、选址以及学科定位等方面都存有不少疑惑,特借《上海书评》一角,发表一点浅见,希望能将所牵涉的复杂问题辨析清楚。

北大与燕京

在北大发布的官方文稿中,对于这一机构的定位和宗旨有这样的阐释:燕京学堂“根植京师大学堂的中华文明底蕴,绵延北京大学五四新文化运动的精神命脉,承接百年燕园孕育的博雅教育理念和国际化视野”。这一句大可斟酌。新文化运动恰恰以激烈反对传统文化而著称,这样的“精神命脉”是很难和传统文化的“底蕴”相协调的。而且,此机构的正式名称中有“燕京”字样,英文表述也启用传统的拼写(Yenching),再加上“百年燕园”的提法,凡稍知近代教育史的人,都自然会联想到著名的燕京大学

约翰·萨顿:《垄断的秘密:沉没成本与市场结构》

社会思想译丛 ★ 新书讯

垄断的秘密:沉没成本与市场结构约翰·萨顿(John Sutton):《垄断的秘密:沉没成本与市场结构》(Sunk Costs and Market Structure: Price Competition, Advertising, and the Evolution of Concentration),艾佳慧、贾绅译,北京大学出版社2014年。ISBN: 9787301242353. @豆瓣 @小组

《垄断的秘密:沉没成本与市场结构》一书在近年来支配了产业组织文献的博弈理论模型与传统的结构/产品/绩效范式(由贝恩及其理论继承者发展而成)倡导的实证研究主题之间搭建了一座桥梁。

由于很多理论结果被证明其依赖于很难被测定的市场特征,一些观察者认为博弈论文献不能为构成20世纪50年代以来该主题的跨行业实证研
究提供理论基础。运用当前的博弈理论模型,约翰·萨顿重新检验了传统研究主题。他指出, 尽管许多结果具有“微妙”的性质,但在合理改变
模型设定时,存在一些被证明是相当稳健可靠的理论预测。因此,当我们在范围很大的跨行业间寻找统计规律性时,应当考虑这些结果。

萨顿收集了一个行业研究“矩阵”,包括6个国家(法国、德国、意大利、日本、英国和美国)和食品饮料部门中的20个行业。为解释产业结构的演化,他结合理论、计量证据以及在细节上展示各不相同的结构演化模式以发现在复杂的产业结构演化中博弈论进路的长处和局限。

劳伦斯·鲍姆:《法官的裁判之道:以社会心理学视角探析》

社会思想译丛 ★ 新书讯

法官的裁判之道:以社会心理学视角探析劳伦斯·鲍姆(Lawrence Baum):《法官的裁判之道:以社会心理学视角探析》(Judges and Their Audiences: A Perspective on Judicial Behavior),李国庆译,北京大学出版社2014年。ISBN: 9787301168004. @豆瓣 @小组

内容简介

是什么驱动着法官的决策过程?劳伦斯·鲍姆就这个关键的问题提供了一个新视角,这一视角是基于法官对于获得重要受众的认同的利益(兴趣)。

鲍姆认为,受众对法官的影响是无处不在的。这种影响来自于法官对于获得欢迎和尊重的利益(兴趣),而获取欢迎和尊重对于大多数人来说都是一个核心性的动机。法官关心来自受众的尊重,这是因为他们喜欢尊重本身,而不仅仅是把尊重当成达到别的目的的手段。《法官的裁判之道——以社会心理学视角探析》使用社会心理学的研究成果来论证,受众在相当大程度上塑造了法官们的选择。本书利用了有关司法决策过程的大量学术文献和实证研究证据,分析了几种类型的受众(包括公众、其他政府部门、法院同事、法律职业共同体以及法官在社会上的伙伴)的潜在和实际影响。

在有关司法行为的一些关键问题上,学者们意见不一,而本书提供了一种更深层次的理解,指出了司法行为在某些方面偏离了现存模型的假设,并且证明了这些模型有待进一步改进。

理查德·波斯纳:《资本主义民主的危机》

理查德·波斯纳文集 ★ 新书讯

资本主义民主的危机理查德·波斯纳:《资本主义民主的危机》(The Crisis of Capitalist Democracy),李晟译,北京大学出版社2014年。@豆瓣 @小组

本书是波斯纳关于2008年全球金融危机的第二本著作。作为《资本主义的失败》的后续,《资本主义民主的危机》进一步深入到经济学的理论语境当中,不仅从现实层面对于奥巴马政府的危机应对政策做出了细致分析和犀利批评,还从理论层面讨论了金融危机的形成与发展所带来的启示,在此基础上提出了有建设性的改革措施,建议通过经济、法律、公共政策等多方面手段加强政府的金融监管,并展望了后危机时代的前景。波斯纳指出,金融危机不仅反映了投资者与公众面对泡沫时的盲动,更显示出政府放松监管背景下金融本身的危险性和当下经济学学术发展的误区,以及美国政治结构内在的低效、分裂与冲突,因而不仅是经济危机,更是资本主义民主的危机。

刘忠:格、职、级与竞争上岗——法院内部秩序的深层结构

从1990年代初期启动审判方式改革,到颁布三个“人民法院五年改革纲要”,法院三大诉讼审判持续的进行制度革新。与表层结构朝向正当程序论的设计目标改动的同一时间序列内,在深层结构上,法院组织进行反方向运动。表层结构的意义受决定于深层结构[1],这一不同方向的运动,使法院审判改革只是表象上的纷繁,实际形态并未根本撼动。

这一深层结构的内涵是:在法院内部建立细密的层级体系,并通过竞争上岗制度,将这一静态的体系激活,成为控制等级(cybernetic hierarchy)[2],从而建立起以“命令—服从”为特征的内部控制机制。

学界曾以“行政化”来表达这一结构之表象的片段。但“行政”一词,出自日语,在中国法律内是常用语,如行政庭、日常行政工作、司法行政装备处、行政处罚、行政审批、司法行政机关等。“法院行政化”所言之“行政”,词义因堕入上述词汇丛中,使得实际所指含混模糊。其意欲表达的所指,实际是在韦伯的官僚制(bureaucracy)[3]意义上展开。而至迟从延安时代[4]以来,尤其是1951年“三反”运动中“反官僚主义”[5]之后,官僚制之“官僚”一词,在中国词库内,不具有韦伯意义上的中性形象,而成为政治上极力避免的词汇,“官僚制”亦被置换为科层化、行政化等新表达。但这种置换,导致识者误读错解。

本文即对中国法院这一内控制秩序建立的历史和政治形成过程进行描述,分析其在当代中国法院内部支配实现的中枢作用,阐明为何在诸多影响法院审判程序的因素中,激活格、职、级体系的竞争上岗机制成为决定表层结构意义的深层结构,同时对因误读造成的并无效果的对策论进行延展评析。

刘忠:读解双规——侦查技术视域内的反贪非正式程序

1990年代中期以后,正当程序(due process)理论几乎为中国刑事诉讼法和诉讼法学研究提供了全部的想象空间。作为正当程序理论两个核心命题之一,以下判断,影响至深:真理就是从这一立场出发而获得解释的总体:正当/可接受性既不在于过程起点的规定性,也不在于过程最后所得出的结果,而只在于过程本身。[1] 但是,何为正当,由谁设计,以什么标准设计的程序为正当,在不同的持论下,始终难获得共同接受的界定。以实定法作为最低限的正当,这一愿景亦不断被诉讼实践否弃。在行动中的刑事诉讼实践内,有着“双规”、撤回起诉等非诉讼法规定的程序在实际担当着功能。

原本在1978年12月中央纪委成立和1979年初彭真主持《人民检察院组织法》修改时,已经确立了此后两者各自的性质分工:纪委负责违反党纪、政纪,检察院监督的范围是犯罪。[2] 1986年根据邓小平的指示,又进行了重申和机构调整。[3] 但是在1997年前后,纪委和检察院在重大职务犯罪上的关系成为:纪委立案调查,查清事实,然后移送检察院,反贪局实际仅作为纪委的预审机构出现,检察院的独立发现重大案件、立案侦查的比例大幅下降。在两者关系形态中起决定性的节点之一是纪委的“双规”手段。

1993-1998年任最高检察院检察长的张思卿曾说反贪侦查有十八般武艺,即刑事拘留、监视居住等五种强制措施和传唤、讯问等十三种侦查手段。为何这些手段被弃之不用而转向非刑事诉讼法规定的“双规”手段,反贪侦查机关为何自我放弃自主性而选择依附,成为本文主题的提示性问题。

本文的分析、行文脉络是:作为反贪侦查对象的犯罪在自然属性上迥异于公安机关侦查的故意杀人、抢劫等普通刑事案件,这导致反贪侦查对于口供的极度倚赖,口供成为“证据之源”,而口供获取需要较长时间地限制嫌疑人人身自由以及屏蔽内外信息渗透。在1997年《刑事诉讼法》修改后,传统反贪侦查手段无效,检察院由此全面转向与纪委合作,依靠“双规”作为案件突破的保障性手段。此现象的原因是中国经济、社会的基础结构能力软弱和刑事法总体性的缺失所致。诉讼程序之外的刑事政策亦是检察院行为选择的重要的考量因素。反贪侦查形态是被制度和技术结构决定的次生产品。对正当程序理论过于僵硬解读而进行的齐一的侦查程序设计,必然对特殊类型案件形成管制,而管制会催生各种非正式程序,反而使得程序正当之设计目的落空。

“双规”等非正式程序内的刑事司法行为的发生,其引起和被引起的制度与技术结构复杂,不是站在道德制高点上的几个语词的衍生能全部概括。转换以道德哲学、政治哲学的立场进行昂扬批评的姿态,而以司法是一种细腻的手艺的理路,仔细地辨析其工艺中的一招一式的展开,社会性地研究社会事实[4],对“双规”问题进行拆解分析,是回应正当程序理论何以无法践行的有意义解读。

Francis Fukuyama: Political Order and Political Decay: From the Industrial Revolution to the Globalization of Democracy.

Francis Fukuyama: Political Order and Political Decay: From the Industrial Revolution to the Globalization of Democracy. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2014. ISBN: 0374227357; 9780374227357.

弗朗西斯·福山:《政治秩序与政治衰败:从工业革命到民主全球化》

Political Order and Political Decay: From the Industrial Revolution to the Globalization of DemocracyThe second volume of the bestselling landmark work on the history of the modern state

Writing in The Wall Street Journal, David Gress called Francis Fukuyama’s Origins of Political Order “magisterial in its learning and admirably immodest in its ambition.” In The New York Times Book Review, Michael Lind described the book as “a major achievement by one of the leading public intellectuals of our time.” And in The Washington Post, Gerard DeGrott exclaimed “this is a book that will be remembered. Bring on volume two.”

Volume two is finally here, completing the most important work of political thought in at least a generation. Taking up the essential question of how societies develop strong, impersonal, and accountable political institutions, Fukuyama follows the story from the French Revolution to the so-called Arab Spring and the deep dysfunctions of contemporary American politics. He examines the effects of corruption on governance, and why some societies have been successful at rooting it out. He explores the different legacies of colonialism in Latin America, Africa, and Asia, and offers a clear-eyed account of why some regions have thrived and developed more quickly than others. And he boldly reckons with the future of democracy in the face of a rising global middle class and entrenched political paralysis in the West.

Richard A. Posner, Economic Analysis of Law, 9th Edition.

Richard A. Posner, Economic Analysis of Law, 9th Edition. Wolters Kluwer Law & Business, 2014. ISBN: 9781454833888.

Lucid, comprehensive, and definitive in its field, this text covers every aspect of economic analysis of the law.

Features:

  • Two new chapters, one on intellectual property, one on international and comparative law, both exploding fields of great importance.
  • Earlier editions’ questions have been converted to answers, making the book more accessible and informative.
  • Revised to be clearer and less technical.
  • More eclectic, reflecting recent criticisms of “rational choice” theory, in particular the need to supplement it with insights from psychology.
  • Greater attention paid to judicial behavior, realistically modeled and explained in economic terms.
  • Incorporates insights from the veritable explosion of books and articles published in the last few years on economic analysis of law.

Richard A. Posner is a judge of the U.S. Court Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, and a senior lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School. He is the author of numerous books, including Overcoming Law, a New York Times Book Review editors’ choices for best book of 1995 and An Affair of State: The Investigation, Impeachment, and Trial of President Clinton, one of Times‘ choices for Best Book of the Year in 1999 and a Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist, 2000.

4 of 34
12345678