Widowhood Practice in Eastern Nigeria： A Comparative Study of Imo and Anambra States

Marriage is one of the valued institutions in the traditional African society. Incidentally, it has its own challenges. When a young man or woman gets to a certain age and he/she is not married, society frowns at it. Thus, many couples enter into marriage relationships with a lot of excitements and expectations. However, losing one＇s spouse to death robs one of all these excitements and expectations and exposes the bereaved spouse to some dehumanizing challenges. These challenges are mostly experienced by women in the Eastern Region of Nigeria. These women are subjected to dehumanizing practices which are socially accepted in the region. This paper attempts a comparative study of some of the practices imposed on widows in Eastern Nigeria. A sample of 200 participants was purposively selected from two states in the Eastern Region of Nigeria. The study adopted the qualitative research method. Thus, the analysis was made using descriptive method. The study showed that these inhuman traditional practices in Eastern Nigeria are initiated and perpetrated by the kinsmen （Umunna and Umuada）. It also showed that the widowhood treatment is meted out on all widows, but the severity or less severity of these treatments are dependent on the socio-economic and other attributes of the widow. Finally, recommendations were made, which include the need to protect the fundamental rights of widows and their children.

The Research On Protecting of Criminal Victims ＇ Rights

In the scales of the human rights protection which is not only meant to protect the basic rights of suspects, but also included the rights of victims, both are very important. However, during the execution process, the criminal legal relations are always simply to be defined as the relationship between the national authorities with the suspects except the victims. The victim＇ s benefits and aspirations are often ignored because they are viewed as a category of witnesses. Therefore, it is against the will of legals,which is better to give the victims the concerned parties to participants the processing, then their rights can be protected and got the coordinating compensation.

The Limit to the Liberty of Expression in the Western World from the Perspective of Jurisprudence

The liberty of expression is one of the most important values in the human society, and a tolerant, unconstrained social atmosphere can provide personal development with a healthy and harmonious environment. Since the modern times, the liberty of expression has been gradually deemed by academic circles and all walks of life as a basic human right, and also has been fixed as a basic right of citizens through the legal form. The purpose of this paper is to clearly analyze the kernel and value of the liberty of expression through a historical review, so as to specifically sort out the development course of the liberty of expression and also excavate its implied meanings. In addition, the embodiment of the liberty of expression in both theory and practice since the modern times is analyzed around the limit theory of the liberty of expression, and then the opinions of the author are drawn up. Thus, some new ideas and views are provided for the future development of the liberty of expression from a new perspective.

Decentralisation： New Values and New Rights

The aim of this paper is to challenge the traditional or standard view of the current processes of decentralisation within institutions and administrations, in order to reconstruct the dynamic of such processes in terms of new values and new rights. Therefore, this paper censures the ＂reductionist＂ vision of decentralisation that envisages it merely as an administrative and institutional event and, in contrast, develops a concept of decentralisation as a social, political, and legal process linked to new constitutional values and new fundamental rights, whereby, it might be included within the sphere of a general theory of rights and take on an important role within this area. This work vindicates the idea that contemporary decentralization must form a part of the historical processes of the generalisation and specification of rights where in the goal is the fulfilment of the following maxim： rights for all and not merely for a few. To achieve this goal, decentralisation can incorporate the instrument of ＂positive discrimination＂ as a ＂strategy for equality＂, which can employ to create ＂specific rights＂ aims primarily at the members of the most vulnerable groups.

A Review of the Study on the Rural Minimum Living Security System

The rural minimum living security system has the function ofguaranteeing the basic right of life, maintaining social stability and promoting social fairness. In the course of practice, the minimum living guarantee system has also created the problem that hinders its normal function, This paper, based on the rural subsistence allowances policy itself, the implementation of the main body, the object, the system of social environment and other aspects of the operation of rural subsistence allowances in recent years, the problems and causes of the study carried out, and on this basis, Rural low subsistence allowances research and development direction of the future, with a view to the rural minimum living system of further theoretical research, the specific practice to provide reference.

Quantitative Characteristics of Patentable Applications in Japan： An Analysis Using Bibliographic Information of Application Documents

This study examined Japanese patents in terms of the quantitative characteristics of application documents that resulted in the acquisition of rights in order to clarify the relationship between the features and patentability of applications. The groups of approved applications and those that had not been approved were compared for 12 variables： publication time lag; numbers of inventors, classifications, pages, figures, tables, claims, priority claims, countries for priority claims, cited patents, and cited non-patent documents; and median of citation age. Furthermore, the authors carried out the experiments in which patent applications were automatically classified into two groups by the machine learning method, random forests. As a result, statistically significant differences between the two groups were observed for the following variables （p 〈 .001）： the numbers of inventors, pages, figures, claims, priority claims, and countries for priority claims were significantly larger in the group of approved applications, while the time lag until publication was smaller. In particular, the publication time lag and the numbers of inventors, pages, and figures were variables representing the features that largely contribute to discriminating approved applications in the classification using random forests, which implies that these have relatively strong relationships with patentability.

“要件审判九步法”的思维构造研究

近年来,邹碧华的“要件审判九步法”因其简明清晰的步骤和高度的可操作性,在司法实务界得到了广泛应用,也引起法学界的持续关注。然而,当前学界对邹碧华“要件审判九步法”的研究主要集中于九个步骤的实践价值和应用技巧,尚缺乏从学理层面对“要件审判九步法”的思维构造展开深入探讨。本文从实体和程序两个层面对“要件审判九步法”进行剖析。在实体层面,“要件审判九步法”是以请求权为核心,以问题为导向的论题学思维方法。在程序层面,“要件审判九步法”紧扣争点的确定和争点问题的解决,以问题导向方式将审判思路的各环节融洽地予以贯通。在此基础上,本文探讨问题导向属性对增强“要件审判九步法”应用价值的积极意义,并对“要件审判九步法”如何兼具事实归入与法律应用的双重功能进行思维层面的探讨。

Dilemma of concepts and strategies for the prevention of spread of HIV in relation to human behavior,law and human rights

The new prevalence data regarding the estimated global number of human immunodeficiency virus positive (HIV+) cases,i.e.,including people who are either aware or unaware of their HIV infection in 2010,lead many to wonder why the increase in incidence has reached today’s unprecedented level and escalated within such a short time.This,in spite of prevention campaigns in countries affected by HIV/acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) with their urgent messages aimed at preventing HIV transmission by promoting changes in individual’s behavior.This article analyzes the background of the prevention strategies,in particular their political,social and legal concepts in terms of human rights,and reveals traits of human behavior not considered thus far.A radical reappraisal is necessary,at social and legislative levels,as well as options additional to current concepts.When ethical issues come up,they become blamed for outmoded moralistic positions.However,ignoring the reality has led to dire consequences from prioritizing individual human rights over society’s collective need to prevent the spread of HIV.

Cost-Sharing in Civil Justice

As an economic factor affecting access to justice, the cost of justice naturally constitutes an element of judicial reform. It is the overall deconstruction of the cost of civil justice, rather than partial observation and analysis confined to litigation costs, that can legitimize the sharing of court and litigation costs and clarify the demarcation between public and private costs. This first-order rule of cost-sharing is intended to establish a balance between the state＇s investment of public resources in the judicial system and the costs borne by the litigant. The second-order rule of cost-sharing centers on the distribution of litigation costs among litigants. This requires not only the setting up of the goal of just and equitable sharing of litigation costs, but also the overall consideration of the adjustment function of the cost mechanism in litigation and pursuit of the general improvement of the justice system. The third-order cost-sharing rule should focus on giving full play to the legal services market and social organizations in sharing the cost of litigation. Its success will depend on the development of professional ethics and on legal regulation.

A Rule of Law Approach to the Division of Authority of Office in China

Making the authority of office of government at all levels more standardized and lawbased is an important step in the process of deepening financial reform and establishing fiscal and taxation systems governed by law.To do so,China needs to clarify further the legal division of authority of government at every level and protect and promote its exercise through legal mechanisms.Governments are given powers so that they may effectively protect citizens’basic interests.On the premise of clarifying the boundaries of government functions,we should use legal means and observe the principle of restraint in determining the scope of authority of office.The criteria for the division have both economic and legal aspects.Economic criteria are more basic;legal criteria make adjustments to the pattern of division derived from economic criteria.The authority of office can be divided into legislative supervision and enforcement.The current legal system allocates powers of legislative supervision quite rationally,but supervision of judicial powers in particular should be appropriately centralized.In terms of enforcement,some space is left for the division of administrative powers in the current system,and there is quite obvious homogeneity of powers between different levels of government.The legal division of authority of office requires that basic principles be stipulated in the Constitution and that a basic fiscal law be devised that clarifies the powers of all levels of government.Allocation of fiscal powers between governments and optimization of the transfer payment system,together with budget constraints,will provide an institutional guarantee for the division of these powers.Fundamentally,the legal confirmation of a system of civil rights can promote the implementation of statutory powers.