Internal pyramid structure,contract enforcement,minority investor protection,and firms’ performance: Evidence from emerging economies

This study investigates the relationship between internal pyramid structure and performance of Chinese, Pakistani, Malaysian pyramidal firms, the effect of judicial efficiency and minority investor protection on this relationship. The results show that the pyramid structure of Pakistani firms is more complicated than Chinese and Malaysian firms, both vertically and horizontally. The study finds that the impact of control layers on performance is negative and stronger than control chains. Moreover, the results illustrate that the effect of control layers on performance at Chinese firms is negative but lower than at Pakistani and Malaysian firms. However, control chains have insignificant association with performance at Chinese pyramid firms. We find that efficient judiciary abates the negative impact of control layers and chains on performance. Our results reveal that in the absence of efficient courts the minority investors’ protection have insignificant impact on the association between internal pyramid structure and firms’ performance.     

Dynamic efficiency evaluation of Italian judicial system using DEA based Malmquist productivity indexes

The aim of this study is the empirical analysis of the Italian judicial system, measuring its efficiency and productivity. For this purpose, in details, the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and Malmquist indexes were used, since they are recognized by the current literature as successful techniques to evaluate the performance of decision making units, namely the courts of law in our field of application.The statistical data on the administration of justice in Italy, as reported in Dossier n. 11 May 2013, Senate Research Services, Research Office on Institutional Issues, Justice and Culture, XVII legislature, shows that the efficiency crisis of justice in Italy began in the 1970s of the last century, aggravating during the ‘80s, and reaching its most critical moment during the 1990s. Several studies emphasize the relevance of the effects of inefficiency upon the judicial system on the credit and financial markets.The present analysis, using data that covers a wide time span and is disaggregated at district level, has set the goal of measuring the efficiency of the individual Italian judicial offices while assessing the progress of productivity in its components, by the means of technological progress and scale efficiency. The efficiency analysis that was carried out transcends the aspect of judicial taxation, considering how the passage of time has impacted on judicial efficiency.Considering the judges and judicial administration employed, in the new, pending and finished cases during the years ranging from 2011 to 2016, the results highlighted a distinct heterogeneity among courts, depending on their geographical location. The five-year period that was considered, included the years in which the judicial geographical distribution reform entered into force, so to better comprehend how this complex reform influenced the recovery of efficiency of the judicial offices. Furthermore, by breaking down the index into change in efficiency and change in technology, this work offers a further glimpse into judiciary organization. The application of combined DEA method and Malmquist indexes for evaluating court efficiency in a large time frame showed very interesting and useful results, relevant for judicial administration.     

It's easier to contract than to pay: Judicial independence and US municipal default in the 19th century

It is well established in the literature that an independent judiciary can act as a signal of credibility by a sovereign state and as a guarantor of creditor rights. However, to date there has been little systematic work analyzing how an independent judiciary reacts to fiscal stress and public-sector default. This article addresses that very question by evaluating how and if judicial independence affects default rates using US municipal data through the nineteenth century. Overall, the results do indicate that greater judicial independence is associated with a significantly lower likelihood of default. This channel largely occurs through the method by which a member of a state's court of last resort is selected (either appointment or popular election) and term length.     

司法会计鉴定风险控制研究

司法会计鉴定与审计不同,会计师事务所在从事司法会计鉴定业务时应掌握两者之间的区别,防止产生鉴定风险.鉴定受理时应保证程序合法,量力而行;鉴定过程中确保鉴定材料充足、真实合法,恰当运用引用技术标准,缜密推理、慎做结论;依照有关条件和要求出具鉴定书;庭审时应尽量使用通俗易懂的语言,恰当运用证明技巧,促使法官采信正确的鉴定结论.     

中国司法管理学学科发展的战略思考

作为一门在司法改革过程中诞生出来的新学科,中国司法管理学在确立自身独立学科地位后,应针对目前我国司法管理研究知识管理上存在的问题,从学科发展战略的高度,通过整合研究资源、成立研究机构、创办刊物、培养人才、加强研究司法管理研究成果的利用等举措,充分提高学科知识利用效率,促进学科的进一步发展.     

Biodiversity crime and economic crisis: Hidden mechanisms of misuse of ecosystem goods in Greece

The paper presents the case of biodiversity misuse in urban and rural areas of Greece during the years of economic recession (2008–2019). The hypothesis addressed is that if fiscal crisis and economic recession lead to biodiversity misuse, then, even strong conservation strategies such as those allegedly implemented in developed countries may not be resilient to macro-economic shocks. Empirical data and official statistics are combined in an interpretive way. Mechanisms that enable criminal misuse of biotic resources in protected areas, forests and coastal areas of the country are defined and quantified through specific examples of illegal hunting, logging and fishing. They are defined as the Active Sampling effect, the Market De-concentration effect and the Underground Market effect of crisis. Such crime enablers are not, most likely, country-level singularities; they can be generalized both through their trans-boundary effects and in view of their interference with international conservation strategy and Law.     

专利技术特征划分的反思与重构

技术特征划分的不确定性在一定程度上加剧了专利确权诉讼和侵权纠纷的频发以及结果的频繁“反转”。从表面上看，技术特征的划分难以通过形式理性加以规范；在理论层面上，技术特征划分涉及事实与价值二分的理论问题。要解决技术特征划分的问题，应在事实与价值之间建立沟通机制，而实践理性正是沟通事实与价值的理论，建立在实践理性的基础之上，将技术特征划分中的事实部分与价值部分利用主客观尺度加以区分。在符合技术特征划分定义的规范下，存在多种技术特征的划分方式，决定最终划分方式的是其背后的实践理由。在具体情境之下，对基于实践理由的制度利益进行衡量，重构司法推理三段论，从而在技术特征划分中建立起技术事实到价值判断的理性化和正当化路径。     

信用证欺诈例外疑难问题探析

《跟单信用证统一惯例》不可能对信用证的方方面面都作出规定,涉及信用证欺诈问题时,主要依靠各国的国内法加以解决。我国有关信用证欺诈法律制度的建设一直处于不断进步中。文章针对我国信用证欺诈例外法律中的若干疑难问题,从程序和实体两个方面进行分析,有助于进一步完善我国处理信用证欺诈的法律制度。     

Assessing the Italian tax courts system by weighted three-way log-ratio analysis

Deciding on what should be the most suitable reforms of a national judicial system, whether this means reorganising a courts' structure or offering incetives to judges, requires more empirical evidence. The efficiency of the public judicial system is important to any functioning democracy as it affects several aspects of citizens’ life. As a consequence, new statistical methodologies are required for further valuable insights into the issues that affect the effectiveness of a judicial system.The current study attempts to fill this gap by introducing a new statistical method to investigate the heterogeneity among Italian judicial courts. Here we propose a generalisation of log-ratio analysis for the analysis of the association between the variables of a three-way contingency table. Our focus of this investigation will be on the tax court system of the Italian judicial system.Log-ratio analysis presents many advantages, two of which are the computation and the visual representation of the odds ratios on which the analysis is based. For three-way tables, a conditional odds ratio reflects the likelihood that an event (say tax disputes) will take place in a particular geographical area (say North Italy) instead of an another (say South Italy) given a specific condition (type of justice court).Interestingly, the three-way log-ratio analysis presented in this paper allows one to visually describe these conditional odds-ratios in terms of point distances in a biplot between the types of justice court located in different geographical areas of Italy.     

比较法视野下刑事鉴定意见的审查认定

我国一方面借鉴了英美法系专家证言的可采性规则，确立了鉴定意见的排除规则，以规范法官在审查认定鉴定意见时的自由裁量权；另一方面，移植了大陆法系国家的专家辅助人制度，旨在专家的辅助下，使控辩双方能对鉴定意见进行有效的质证。但是，我国法官对鉴定意见的审查实际上停留在对鉴定报告书的书面审查层面，非庭前或庭上的实质审查。鉴定意见的实质审查和鉴定意见排除规则的有效适用，有赖于“审判中心主义”的裁判模式改革的推进。