Author: <span>Donnie</span>
专业日志

Why are Chinese Blawgs Like law Journals

Title: Why do Chinese Blawgs Represent themselves as Law Reviews and even Academic Libraries – A Historical Observation
Ver.:  1.1
Date: 20060624
By: Donnie H. DONG (http://blawgdog.com)
Licence: CC: by-nc-sa
For China Blawg Review Vol. 1 (Click here to JOIN US)

I have mentioned in last lawg that Chines blawgs are mostly like formal journals but not classical blogs. I am trying to analysis its reason in this post. Heh, follow the formal style of Chinese blawgs, I may name this essay as "An Empiristic Research form the Perspective of Sociology of Knowledge"…

Let’s recall the history of the personal legal website in China.

Around and/or after 1995, touched by the Internet, some pioneers established the first generation of Chinese personal pages conerning legal issues. The earliest and most famous one is "China Judge", found by Yau Zheng-hui, a judge in Fujian Province (I myself has one also, see its remains here). These websites had a common character: like a self-edited magazine as well as a personal book shelf which included articles, books and other things that did or did not created by the site owner. 

In the very beginning, contents created other than the founder of the sites often came directly from the authors. At that time, most legal researchers and practicers were not very familiar with the Internet. Normally being friends of the legal sites owners, they agree to publish their works in cyberspace freely after a rough consideration in that the publication in cyberspace would not affect their interstes.

专业日志 itemprop="discussionURL"2

Not LOG, But Publication: A Feature of Cn Blawgs

Title: Not BLOGs, But Publications: A Feature of Chinese Blawgsphere
Ver.:  1.1
Date: 20060624
By: Donnie H. DONG (http://blawgdog.com)
Licence: CC: by-nc-sa
For China Blawg Review Vol. 1 (Click here to JOIN US)

The number of Chinese blawgs  (NOT China Blawgs in English, BUT Blawgs in Chinese) is increasing in a geometrical rate. It is an impossible mission to surf all the blogs, so no one dare to say that he/she has grasped all the exactly features of Chinese blawgs, me neither. However, if you are a bilingual reader (Even not so fluent in Chinese or English, like me), and you are interested in the blawgsphere for a certain period (say, two months), I believe you may at least discover SOME characteristics of Chinese Blawgs, me either.

What I find in Chinese blawgs is: A good many of them are actually not "blogs" but  online academic magazines. The following list can be an empirical example, which is a part of the list of today’s "hot posts" in the index page of Law Blog (http://www.fyfz.cn), a well-known site providing blawg service. The topics are oringinally in Chinese, so I translated them roughly.

One Must Regard the People’s Indignation Seriously 
The Translation of Surya Prakash Sinha’s Jurisprudence (Part 83)
Deng Zheng Lai: Preface for Silhouettes of Chinese Lawyers in 100 Years (Author: Chen X. H.)
My Opinion on the Legislation of Lawyer’s Fee
A bit Coolness in this Hot Summer
A Discussion with Prof. Lin: On the Legislation of…
Beijing, What Makes You So Luxurious
Feelings during Supervising the theses
A Facet for Constructing in the Regime of Administrative Aidance
Some Ideas in Reading
The Distance to the Humanism in Our Legal Education
The Ideology of Entertainment
Constitution-Government-Market: A New Analytic Approach of Consti-Economic
Patents Will Never Be Unlawful Registered
The Rule of Law is the Base of the Democracy
A Benificial Attempt in the Study of Civil Law
The Issues on Gender and Minorites among the U.S. Legal Professionals
……

Most of the above topics are as serious as articles in law journals, and after clicking the links, one will find that the contents of the posts are mostly in very formal formats and with very academic tones. In my view, these posts are NOT LOGs, BUT PUBLICATIONs.

One may get further evidences of this feature easily. Academic theses with dozens of footnotes appeared frequently in Chinese blawgs. Some sites have been turned to be a collection of academic works: "blawggers" classified their "logs" with names of famous researchers, then uploaded bunches of those researchers’ academic achievements.

At the same time, some features of classical blogs are missing. While copy other’s articles entirely onto their sites, few Chinese blawggers employ copyright licences like those of Creative Commons (that means these blawgs reserved all their own right). The typical logs that embedded links navigating readers to further related web pages are rare. Chinese blawggers are not used to "log" what happens every day but keep uploading their (or others’) formal publications.

The owners of most popular Chinese blawgs are mainly researchers. Some famous law professors have their own blawgs, such as Deng Zheng-Lai, He Wei-fang, Lin Lai-fan, Xie Hui, etc. Among them, prof. Xie Hui and Prof. Lin Lai-fan’s blawg follow the suit of classical blogs: they post diaries, sentiments, scribbles and even poetries on their blawg site. But their style are not standing on the mainstream.

In another log, I will discuss why many Chinese blawgs represent themselves not logs but publications. Here gose the influences of this characteristic. To readers are looking for research materials, libraries are better than caffs. A researcher may find many useful references from Chinese blawgs and some times he even need not follow the links – blawggers copy the articles entirely! To readers are interested in Chinese lawyer’s life, however, they may feel disapointed. There are not so many practical cases as well as practice experiences be shared in Chinese blawgsphere. Solicitors, barristers and attoneys are still standing in the corners of the blawg club.

专业日志

Philosophy of Law

The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Philosophy of Law

Philosophers of law are concerned with providing a general philosophical analysis of law and legal institutions. Issues in legal philosophy range from abstract conceptual questions about the nature of law and legal systems to normative questions about the relation between law and morality and the justification for various legal institutions. Topics in legal philosophy tend to be more abstract than related topics in political philosophy and applied ethics. For example, whereas the question of how properly to interpret the U.S. Constitution belongs to democratic theory and hence falls under the heading of political philosophy, the analysis of legal interpretation falls under the heading of legal philosophy. Likewise, whereas the question of whether capital punishment is morally permissible falls under the heading of applied ethics, the question of whether the institution of punishment can be justified falls under the heading of legal philosophy. Topics in legal philosophy fall roughly into three categories: analytic jurisprudence, normative jurisprudence, and critical theories of law.

Table of Contents (Clicking on the links below will take you to those parts of this article)

专业日志

A Book on "Psychotechnology"

Cyberseduction: Reality in the Age of Psychotechnology
By: Dr. Jeri Fink    Table of Contents in Amazon.com
Prometheus Books, New York. 1999

Psychotechnology was born from two decades of living with computers, virtual realities, and the Internet. Equally as important, it was nurtured through the willing ears and imagination of some very special people. These are minds that took those first tentateive steps into a new philosophy, considering some of the exciting and chilling possibilities of a future infused with virtual reality simulations…(p.9)

From caves to cyberspace, virtual reality has been an integral part of human life. What is this strange, illusive place that we all recognize and have such difficulty defining? Why is there cyberseduction? In order to understand the nature of a virtual reality we need to first identify reality. Scientists, artists, philosophers, and ordinary people have been trying to firgure that out since the dawn of human consciousness.  Some say it’s everything that is physical and concrete. Many believe that it is what the group agrees on, a consensus reality. But then strange questions are raised. Does the tree that falls in the forest make any sounds when there is no one to hear? What is the difference between brain and mind? (p.15-16)

…Simply put, when reality is replaced by virtuality in cyberspace, anything can happen. Cyberseduction grabs us, tantalizes us, and irretrievably snares us. (p.17)

专业日志

无形财产魅力无穷：影楼归还多余照片案检讨

　　以前日志里提到的客户起诉影楼，主张多拍的底片的所有权的案件有了终审结果。仔细看了昆明中院的报道，原来不是底片而是数码照片，而且存储的数码照片数据已经被影楼删除了。这一点其实在当时天涯社区里的帖子上，当事人已经提过，我居然没有注意到——在BBS上看东西常常是囫囵吞枣，深刻反省中……

专业日志

Magic cone：女用站式撒尿漏斗

　　这个东西是为女士站着撒尿设计的。很多女士可能会觉得在公共厕所的马桶上不卫生，而且有时候（比如怀孕，再比如在野外的山上）脱裤子/裙子不方便。这个小东西似乎已经简单地解决了女性站着完成撒尿动作的大问题——没试过，不知道会不会漏出来，再说我也不是女的。点这里看使用方法（动画）。

　　这个东西被取名为Magic Cone，是用循环纸板做的，点图片可以到它的网站上去查看。它已经获得了美国专利，专利号：No: 6,434,757。不清楚是否已经向中国知识产权局提交了申请。因为是专利，本来想归进“网络和知识产权”栏内的，不过想了想还是放到“性知识”。

专业日志 itemprop="discussionURL"1

别让网络安全成为一场春梦——关于讯雷和华军等资源网站间争议的评论

[本文不适用本站创作共用约定，如需转载，烦请先经过作者同意]

　　这几天国内互联网界又开始吵架。

　　事情是这样的：下载软件提供商迅雷刚刚准备成为“中国最大资源聚合门户”，华军、天空等下载站就联手“封杀”它，讯雷随即抛出长篇解释，接着华军又以迅雷不及掩耳之速对这些解释进行了再反驳，而讯雷也不愧迅雷，又在6月6号发表名为“误解 遗憾 共赢”的公开信，华军也马上回应说“我们也从来没有关闭合作的大门！”。你来我往中除了一些简单地技术描述以及不痛不痒的“保留进一步采取法律措施的权利”外，更多的是象征意义的太级推手——像极了去年百度与七大唱片公司的纠葛——暂且打住，先分析法律问题。

　　一、法律问题

专业日志 itemprop="discussionURL"3

女权主义的《达芬奇密码》

　　因为之前没有看过书，对天主教的了解也不多，所以看电影《达芬奇密码》的时候，基本上是跟看“哈利波特”一样的心态——不像中国的基督教徒和西方的所有普通人，我根本不知道圣约憨和抹大拉的马利亚这些人到底是怎么回事。所以，我眼睛中的《达芬奇密码》，就是一部带有女权色彩的电影and小说——仅仅是小说而已——用来娱乐人的，不用那么着急上火。

　　因为它是小说，所以也就不必去质疑其中真实不真实，谁会去质疑哈利波特？只不过，因为这本书将延续至今的，教条主义者（电影里天主事工会的人的原话）和宗教改革者（或者说教廷和异教徒）的矛盾再戏说了一次罢了。从这个角度上看，一些教徒反对这部电影公映、甚至绝食，似乎是有些过于敏感了。如果连看个小说或者电影都把持不住，那这信徒估计随便看点其它宗教的书就离开基督了，再随便看点科幻电影，就把自己当外星人了。如果一个教徒真的看看这个电影就不信仰了，那最值得被教廷谴责的，恐怕是相关的神职人员——他们的“工作成绩”也太逊了。

　　不过，不管历史真实如何，我倒真的希望耶稣和他的教徒们，至少不歧视和迫害女人。其实女性被排除在宗教之外，只是男性为中心的社会权力体系的一个表现。至于道德上，价值观上的“应不应该排除在外”，我不想说。

　　日志完了，以下是引用的部分：