Fiscal transfers for biodiversity conservation: The Portuguese Local Finances Law

Biodiversity loss is a serious and ongoing global environmental problem. Economic instruments in biodiversity policies can contribute towards reconciling the conservation costs encountered at local level with the benefits of biodiversity conservation at higher levels of governance, from regional and national levels up to the global level. This paper outlines the theoretical foundations of fiscal transfers in conservation policies and also offers a concise account of existing international experience and future prospects. The recently amended Portuguese Local Finances Law (LFL) of 2007, with its groundbreaking new article on the promotion of local sustainability, is analysed in terms of the significance of fiscal transfers for municipal budgets. It is compared with its predecessor law, highlighting changes in fiscal revenues for selected municipalities in the country in relation to their designated conservation areas. The analysis shows that these ecological fiscal transfers can be significant for those municipalities with a large proportion of land under protected status. However, because it also introduces a considerable number of changes to the Portuguese fiscal transfer scheme, the ecological impact of the new LFL is difficult to grasp due to the presence of several crossover effects. The results obtained offer significant insights both for improving the Portuguese LFL and for designing new ecological fiscal transfer schemes.     

公司治理结构中会计目标的法律经济学解释——兼论我国会计法律制度的完善

公司治理涉及各种利益相关者责权利的划分和制衡。会计是连接权利和利益的纽带,会计信息质量在公司治理结构中扮演着重要的角色。公司治理中对各种利益相关者的约束与制衡机制需要以会计信息作保障。会计目标与公司治理目标具有内在的关联性,在我国公司目前所处的经济环境下,公司目标是影响公司治理结构的重要因素.会计法律制度的完善对我国公司治理具有重要的意义。     

讨论式教学法在劳动与社会保障法教学中的应用

讨论式教学有别于传统的讲授式教学。为了达到良好的教学效果，讨论的主题应当紧扣劳动与社会保障法课程内容，能够激发学生的讨论热情，难易适中。在讨论过程中，教师应居于主导地位，有效地控制讨论进程，把握讨论方向，避免偏离讨论主题。讨论结束后，教师要及时总结、评价和补充，对涉及的理论或制度问题进行系统的整理和陈述，以达到讨论式教学的目标。     

高职法学教育教学模式改革的可能路径分析

我国高职法学教育的人才培养体制及其主导下的教学模式,与普通高等学校的法学本科教育并无区别,并在教学模式上日益陷入工具主义的困境。为此应改革传统教学模式,积极倡导开放性教学模式,为建立、完善适应社会发展的高职法学教育的人才培养体制寻求路径。     

重述格雷欣定律

经济学者对格雷欣定律有两种不同的理解,要考证其具体含义必须深入考察格雷欣爵士所处的经济社会背景。通过分析,本文认为该定律是指重量轻、成色差的劣币驱逐了重量足、成色好的良币。另外,本文对格雷欣定律成立的条件进行了具体分析。最后以加洛林王朝的铸币体系在西欧国家的扩散来验证格雷欣定律的成立。     

新侵权责任法实施背景下环境责任保险发展的博弈分析

如何发展环境责任保险,使其更好地促进地方环境保护,是当前社会的一个热点问题。本文通过经济学的重要工具博弈论(Game Theory)来对上述的环境责任保险系统进行一个层层深入的分析,在做了一定的外部假设条件下,一共提供了四阶段的动态博弈模型,其中一阶段分析表明企业在无外部约束的情况下必然会选择污染型生产;二阶段分析表明在有环境责任保险的参与后,污染成本转为由保险公司所承担,企业的行为没有受到约束;三阶段分析模型经过修正后使得保险公司可以采用一个威胁,即可以拒绝为污染型生产进行赔偿;四阶段分析表明只有政府的参与才能使企业的生产行为受到完全的约束。针对各阶段分析的结果,本文结尾提出了相应的建议。     

论流域水环境治理的科层型协调机制

流域水环境治理的科层型协调机制通常可以采取流域管理机构、流域法治、绿色GDP政绩考核制度以及一体化行政区划等实现形式。不可否认。科层机制借助这些实现形式确乎可以有效协调流域水环境的跨界合作治理，在对中央集权历史记忆深刻的国度，例如我国，由科层型协调机制在流域水环境治理中占据主导性地位，通常也是较为便利的选择。不过，受制于完备信息以及零监督成本的苛刻前提假设。科层型协调机制亦存在着明显局限。     

对企业破产中税收问题的探讨

本文对比美国、日本的相关税收法律制度,对《中华人民共和国企业破产法》(以下简称《企业破产法》)实施中引起争议的破产中税收债权的申报、破产管理人撤销权的行使、税收债权的优先性以及在企业重整中的有关税收问题进行了分析,并提出了相关政策建议。     

Food safety and product liability

This paper focuses on the U.S. product liability system for food poisoning cases and makes six key points. First, current legal incentives to produce safer food are weak, though slightly stronger in outbreak situations and in markets where foodborne illness can be more easily traced to individual firms. Far less than 0.01% of cases are litigated and even fewer are paid compensation. Second, even if potential plaintiffs can overcome the high information and transaction costs necessary to file lawsuits, monetary compensation provides only weak incentives to pursue litigation. Firms paid compensation in 56% of the 294 cases examined in this study and the median compensation was only $2,000 before legal fees. Third, indirect incentives for firms may be important and deserve more research. For example, firms may be influenced by costly settlements and decisions against other firms in the same industry. Fourth, confidential settlements, health insurance, and product liability insurance distort legal incentives to produce safer food. Fifth, the ambiguity about whether microbial contamination is “natural” or an “adulterant” hinders the legal system from effectively dealing with food safety issues. Sixth, a brief comparison of the incentives from U.S. and English legal systems suggests that more research is needed to understand the strengths, weaknesses, and relative impact of each country's legal system on the incentives to produce safer food.     

无固定期限劳动合同的一个疑难问题研究

《劳动合同法》把“连续两次订立固定期限劳动合同,续订劳动合同的”作为劳动者要求与用人单位签订无固定期限劳动合同的条件之一,学者对此多有误读,必须予以纠正;此项法律规定本身也不完善,建议修改为“连续三次订立固定期限劳动合同的”。