程序审抑或实体审——美国行政规则司法审查基准研究及其启示

美国行政法学界长期存在着关于行政规则司法审查基准的论争,特别是随着行政领域涉及到更多的科学技术性事项之时。法官应如何对行政规则进行审查,是实体审还是程序审,意见并不一致。本文对此进行了梳理,并认为绝对界分实体审与程序审是难以做到的。从其发展史来看,程序与实体交织在一起,法官面对行政规则时也会有所为、有所不为。从严审查基准的修正将更加体现以上的观点,这对于建立中国"抽象行政行为"司法审查的基准具有借鉴意义。

论刑事庭前审查程序功能定位——兼评刑事诉讼法修正案(草案)第171、180条

在刑事诉讼程序中,庭前审查是一个具有标志意义的重要环节,它直接关乎刑事审判的公正性和科学性。然而,面对1996年刑事诉讼法修改庭前审查程序中出现的漏洞,此次再修改刑事诉讼法时,修法者竟然放弃了"程序审",退回到"实体审",同时又没有对因"实体审"引发的法官在审判中先入为主,审判流于形式的弊端提供有效的遏制方法。这不仅使庭前审查程序处境尴尬,而且使许多人对我国刑事审判改革的方向产生了质疑。因此,两次修法中对庭前审查程序选取的两种改革模式都不可避免地存在缺陷,只有对庭前审查程序进行学科合理的改造,搭建一个独立多功能的庭前审查平台,发挥审查前必要的筛选、过滤、分流等诉讼功能,才能从根本上摆脱目前的困境,更可为未来的刑事司法改革开辟广阔天地。

零售企业经济效益审计初探

经济效益审计是现代审计的主要标志,是以提高经济效益为直接目的的新型审计。中国零售业的发展势头越来越强劲,并在经济体系中扮演着越来越重要的角色。在零售企业中开展经济效益审计,对于加强企业管理,提高企业经济效益具有十分重要的意义。本文首先介绍了经济效益审计的基本理论,介绍了零售业的含义、特点、现状和发展趋势等基本情况,重点分析了经济效益审计在零售企业中的运用状况及存在的问题,并提出了解决方法。

Planning method of infrastructure project in China

Different planning methods have been applied in private and public infrastructure projects, which resulted in different approval procedures and querry about impartiality. However, planning methods of infrastructure projects are seldom investigated up to now. The authors propose a proper project planning method which is applicable to all kinds of infrastructure projects with various funedorigins. The project planning method includes a comprehensive planning frame- work and a six-step planning process. The financial indicator, i. e. , self-reimbursement ratio is introduced for the proper division of financial obligation between government and project company.

Twin Cities A Matter of Identity and Belonging

The term ＂twin cities＂ refers to a program in which cities from different places in the world form a ＂twinning＂ alliance that serves as a setting for educational, cultural, political, and social collaborations （Grosspietsch 2009）. The purpose of the program is to promote the twin cities in all aspects of life （Jayne, Hubbard, and Bell 2013） and facilitate a feeling of belonging and identity among their residents （Ogawa 2012）. In the current study, the cities of Beer Sheva and Nahariya were taken as case studies for examining the contribution of the program to promoting residents＇ feeling of belonging to their Jewish identity. Specifically, the current study attempted to examine the effect of town of residence and age group on feeling of belonging, and whether familiarity with the Twin Cities program affected the feeling of belonging to Jewish identity, in the assumption that residents familiar with the program would report a stronger feeling of belonging than residents not familiar with it. The study included 147 participants aged 17-64, of them 80 residents of Beer Sheva and 67 of Nahariya. All the participants were recruited to the study voluntarily and were requested to complete an online self-report questionnaire examining feeling of belonging to Jewish identity. Moreover, an interview was conducted with the representative of the delegations at the Amal school in Nahariya, to reaffirm the findings. The research findings refuted the main research assumption that the Twin Cities program would influence the feeling of belonging. In fact, the current study indicates that no correlation was found between feeling of belonging and any of the research measures, aside from religiosity. Furthermore, and in contrast to the hypothesis, the research findings indicate that participants who were not familiar with the program reported a stronger feeling of belonging than participants who were familiar with it. Due to the surprising findings, the current study raises the possibility that the Twin Cities program is undergoing a process of change and thus promotes individual values more than collective values. This contention changes the essential purpose of the program and this is the significance of the current study.

Culture-related differences in process efficiency in corporations as a competitive factor

This paper focuses on cultural influences on the effectiveness of organizational processes in companies. At this time, there is a predominant emphasis on culture-related differences of processes and workflows in companies in the main body of articles on cross-cultural management research. This paper proposes an extension of these research efforts in that case that the different efficiencies of these processes, resulting from cultural influences, should be examined in more detail. Based on the beginnings of organizational theory and with practical examples, it has been already verified that cultural influences shape organizational structures as well as organizational processes. This kind of fact should lead to the assumption that these cultural influences should also create differences in their efficiency, depending on what kind of culture the companies are. These differences in efficiency can be regarded as opportunities for success from which further competitive advantages can be derived. As that the examination of differences in efficiency of processes is still a rarity in the field of cross-cultural management research this should be developed further.

Quality audit of colonoscopy reports amongst patients screened or surveilled for colorectal neoplasia

AIM： To complete a quality audit using recently pub- lished criteria from the Quality Assurance Task Group of the National Colorectal Cancer Roundtable. METHODS： Consecutive colonoscopy reports of patients at average/high risk screening, or with a prior col6rectal neoplasia （CRN） by endoscopists who perform 11 000 procedures yearly, using a commercial computerized endoscopic report generator. A separate institutional da- tabase providing pathological results. Required documen- tation included patient demographics, history, procedure indications, technical descriptions, colonoscopy findings, interventions, unplanned events, follow-up plans, and pathology results. Reports abstraction employed a stan- dardized glossary with 10% independent data validation. Sample size calculations determined the number of re- ports needed.RESULTS： Two hundreds and fifty patients （63.2± 10.5 years, female： 42.8%, average risk： 38.5%, per- sonal/family history of CRN： 43.3%/20.2%） were scoped in June 2009 by 8 gastroenterologists and 3 surgeons （mean practice： 17.1 ± 8.5 years）. Procedural indica- tion and informed consent were always documented. 14% provided a previous colonoscopy date （past polyp removal information in 25%, but insufficient in most to determine surveillance intervals appropriateness）. Most procedural indicators were recorded （exam date： 98.4%, medications： 99.2%, difficulty level： 98.8%, prep quality： 99.6%）. All reports noted extent of visualization （cecum： 94.4%, with landmarks noted in 78.8% - photodocu- mentation： 67.2%）. No procedural times were recorded. One hundred and eleven had polyps （44.4%） with ana- tomic location noted in 99.1%, size in 65.8%, morphol- ogy in 62.2%; removal was by cold biopsy in 25.2% （cold snare： 18%, snare cautery： 31.5%, unrecorded： 20.7%）, 84.7% were retrieved. Adenomas were noted in 24.8% （advanced adenomas： 7.6%, cancer： 0.4%） in this population with varying previous colonic investigations. CONCLUSION： This audit reveals lacking reported ite- ms, justifying additional research to optimize quality of reporting.

Transparency Reports as a Red Flag for Quality Control of Audit Firms The Republic of Macedonia Experiences

A full application of the new auditing law dated 2005 meant, among other things, an obligation for audit firms to present transparency reports. In the period of 2007-2010, audit firms overcame the barrier and started disclosing the data on their operations, being treated as confidential for a long period of time. A continuous period of four years might seem to be a short period to create a big picture of the developments in the audit profession in the Republic of Macedonia. However, the issue of who, how, and for what purposes these data were used remains open. Pursuant to Article 7 of the Statute of the Institute for Certified Auditors of the Republic of Macedonia （ICARM）, the institute is in charge of carrying out quality control. In 2010, ICARM carried out, for the first time, quality control over the operations of audit firms in 2009. Did ICARM use and how much did it use the data from the transparency reports in the process of selecting the entities to be subjected to quality control？ Is it possible to establish relation between transparency in the operations of the audit firms and improvement of quality of services they offer to their clients？ The authors will try to provide the answers to the abovementioned questions in this paper.

Report on a Research Experiment on the Independent Sentencing Procedure:A Sample from the Wuhu Model

The standardization of sentencing is an important issue in the Chinese reform of criminal justice and sentencing procedure. This study draws on the material obtained from a sentencing procedure pilot project and employs typical experimental methodology to test the effect of implementing the independent sentencing procedure through overall and paired comparisons. The results show that independent sentencing is viable in that it can significantly improve the transparency of the sentencing process and increase the quantity and amount of sentencing information obtained and employed by judges. Although the degree of satisfaction of participants in the procedure is not as high as expected, the resultsin trials of the first instance appear to have greater legitimacy and justifiability. At the same time, the independent sentencing procedure also helps give substance to the function of the collegiate bench, and can thus be taken as an important entry point for deepening court reform. However, the findings of our study show that there was room for improvement in the role of lawyers in this experiment.