法律文本特征分析——以Deed of Covenants and Guarantee为例

以往的法律英语翻译教学往往以术语解释和句子翻译练习为主，未能站在文本的高度俯瞰法律翻译的全过程，对文本在词汇、句法、语篇等层面的特征进行考量。本研究以法律文本Deed of Covenants and Guarantee为例，立足于对原文本的分析，析出该法律文本的8类词汇特征，10类句法特征，以及4类语篇特征，旨在说明：法律翻译是理解与表这的过程，而实践中面对的翻译对象往往是文本，因而理解文本，析出文本各个层面的表现特征，就成为法律翻译的第一步。

Logical Extension of the Children’s Right to Family Life from the Perspective of International Human Rights Covenants

From the perspective of international human rights covenants,the family is the group unit for human life and the fundamental unit of society.Family life is the basic lifestyle of human beings.It is the right,by birth,of the individual to enjoy a normal life within the family.The survival and healthy development of children are inseparable from the family,and living with their parents or other family members is fundamental to guaranteeing the survival and growth of the children and realizing their value of life.Children’s right to family life is an important human right that has connotations fundamental to their lives,and should be safeguarded by both the law and Constitution.

Agent Orange Chemical Plant Locations in the United States and Canada: Environmental and Human Health Impacts

During the Vietnam War, millions of liters of six tactical herbicides were sprayed on the southern Vietnam landscape to defoliate forests, to clear military perimeters and to destroy enemy food supplies. The environmental and human health impacts of spraying these herbicides, especially Agent Orange and those formulated with mixtures that included 2,4,5-trichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4,5-T) which was contaminated with 2,3,7,8-tetracholorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD) have been documented over the last 60 years. The dioxin TCDD clean-up efforts at former military bases and other Vietnam hotspots are ongoing. However, the lesser-told story was the environmental and human health impacts on the communities and chemical plant workers who manufactured Agent Orange and other herbicides that became contaminated with dioxin TCDD in the manufacturing processes at seven locations in the United States and one site in Canada. The pollution at these chemical plant sites, adjacent rivers and groundwater is well known within each affected state or province but not widely recognized beyond their localities. In this paper we assess the national long-term effects on land, groundwater and river resources where Agent Orange and other agricultural herbicides containing 2,4,5-T with unknown amounts of dioxin TCDD were manufactured, transported, and temporarily stored. The sites where residual tactical herbicides with contaminated by-products were applied to public lands or disposed of by military and civilian workers within the United States and Canada are identified. After 60 years, these communities are still paying the price for the U.S. Government, DOD and USDA decisions to provide and use agricultural herbicides as tactical chemical weapons during the Vietnam War (1962-1971). There have been human health issues associated with the chemical manufacture, transport, storage and disposal of these herbicides related to workers who moved these chemical weapons from United States and Canada to SE Asia. Most of these dioxin contaminated tactical herbicides were transported via railroads to ports at Mobile, Alabama and Gulfport, Mississippi. They were then loaded on ocean-going ships and transported via the Panama Canal for use during the Vietnam War. The objective of this study is to document the environmental and human consequences of the manufacture of tactical herbicides with dioxin TCDD and arsenic on the chemical plant, transportation, application, storage and disposal workers. The costs of cleanup of these North America chemical plant sites, transportation corridors, temporary and long-term storage areas, supply chain storage facilities with residual tactical herbicide, application, and disposal sites to date, is in the billions of dollars. Billions have been spent on hazardous waste incineration to destroy the dioxin TCDD or bury it in certified landfills. Government mandated environmental covenants are on titles of properties still contaminated with high levels of dioxin TCDD. If landowners attempt to rescind land use restrictions, many more billions of dollars will be needed to finish the environmental cleanup and restore natural resources. These cost estimates do not include the billions of dollars needed to treat the effects of dioxin TCDD exposure of U.S. and Canadian civilian workers who manufactured and handled these contaminated herbicides during the Vietnam War as well as address human health issues of their offspring.

The Covenant Rituals in Exodus 24:1-11 and the African-Igbo Cultural Concept of Igba-ndu:Their Theological Implications for World Peace

The text of Exod 24:1-11 contains a two-fold ritual ratification of the covenant(Hebrew ber??,Greek diathēkē),the stipulations of which were given at Mount Sinai(cf.Exod 20:1-17).This ratification is studied here in the context of the African-Igbo1 cultural concept of Igba-ndu(covenant,which literally means joining lives together).The main focus of the study is to discover the implications that such covenant ideas have towards fostering world peace.The two ratification acts in the text involve a blood ritual and a ritual meal,both of which are not foreign to the African-Igbo concept of Igba-ndu(covenant).In both the Old Testament(OT)understanding of covenant and the African-Igbo concept of it,there is a special relationship established when two persons or two parties enter into it;the persons are now inseparably bonded together.Thus,the ratified Sinai covenant united the ancient people of Israel with God,making them qāhāl,i.e.,the assembly or the congregation of God’s people.The implication of the union is that God would be protecting them,and they would be obedient to God.In African-Igbo cultural milieu,when two parties are united through a covenant,it is believed that they cannot harm each other without incurring the retributive or boomerang justice known in Igbo language as Ibenne(literally blood-link,as of siblings of the same mother).In other words,since the same blood now flows in both parties,when one decides to harm the other,he/she invariable harms himself or herself.It is this aspect of the African-Igbo concept of covenant that is relevant for world peace when it is cross-examined with the extended aspect of the OT/Sinai covenant.This extension is found in Jer 31:31-33 in which God says that there would be a new covenant since the Israelites were not faithful to the stipulations of the Sinai covenant.This promised new covenant was eventually made effective in the person of Jesus Christ who,while establishing the Eucharistic sacrament at the Last Supper,announced:“This is a new covenant in my blood”(Luke 22:20;1 Cor 11:25).He was referring ultimately to his sacrificial death for humanity(cf.Heb 9:11-28).So this new covenant is more embracive than the OT Sinai covenant which involved only the ancient people of Israel.The new covenant is for the whole world,hence Jesus told his disciples to“make disciples of all nations”(cf.Matt 28:18-20).In other words,through Christ,the whole world has been made the new community,assembly,or family of God.Viewed from African-Igbo idea of covenant as joining lives together,the whole world has been brought into mutual blood relationship through Christ,such that anybody deciding to harm his/her neighbour is ipso facto deciding to harm himself/herself.This idea will help make every human being regard his/her neighbour as a brother or a sister in the extended or large family of God.

Ruth and Esther: Two Matriarchs in Bible

The Book of Ruth and the Book of Esther are the only two books which bear the name of women. The two women Ruth and Esther enjoy the resemblance with the two patriarchs Abraham and Moses in terms of the covenant theme in Bible. The significance of the two women can not be underestimated. In this sense, they should be elevated as two matriarchs in Bible.

China's Criminal Law Reform from the Perspective of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights

The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights reflects the world’s perception of human rights, and is of vital importance in the field of international human rights. The Covenant has been signed by Chinese government. Although not ratified yet, it will definitely have an impact on the reform of China’s Criminal Law. Therefore, it is necessary to further change our notion of the criminal law system by defining the boundary between public power and civil rights and developing the view of human rights protection. In terms of the specific system, it is necessary to further reduce the number of crimes punishable by the death penalty and limit the application of the death sentence, improve China’s Criminal Procedural Law to protect the fundamental rights of suspects and defendants in terms of compulsory measures, investigation means and judicial form, and add some charges like enslavement and illegal human experimentation, which are criminalized around the world, so as to be in line with the requirements of international human rights protection.

Five Years after the Entry of Force of the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic,Social and Cultural Rights: Some Observations

The optional Protocol to the international covenant on economic, Social and cultural Right was adopted in 2008 and entered into force in 2013? During the five years after its entry into force, 23 States have ratified the optional Protocol, and 23 individual communications have been submitted to the committee on economic,Social and cultural Rights? comparing with the acceptance of individual communication procedures under other core international human rights treaties, the record of ratification of the optional Protocol is not satisfactory? in its examination of individual communications,the committee on economic, Social and cultural Rights has made detailed reasoning, extensively referred to its previous general comments, and in case of violations found, suggested both specific and general remedies? in its practice of examining individual communications, the committee on economic, Social and cultural Rights needs to clarify and define the rights under the covenant and their corresponding obligations, while maintaining its nature and role as a supervisory body, without expanding its competence to an unacceptable extent?

Universality and Relativism of Human Rights from Perspective of International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights

There has been much discussion in the recent decade on the universality or particularity or relativism or on the relations between the universal values and standard systems and cultural diversity or pluralism. But most of the discussions are concentrated on the abstract or conceptual terms, with few touching upon international human fights standards. This is strange, because the disputes will never end and it is impossible to arrive at any conclusions of value if discussions only focus on the different concepts and systems of different countries or civilizations instead of on what has been universally accepted or at least on the international human rights treaties and the customary international human rights laws that are binding to the great number of state parties.