BlawgDog | 博铎法豆
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……

资料库

Google提供美国政府网站搜索

　　Google正建设一个专门搜索政府网站的站点。被称为“Google U.S. Government Search”，其搜索的范围包括联邦、州和地方性的资源，而且还将那些以“.com”、“.us”、“.edu”结尾的政府网站也囊括了进来。和其它Google站点的简洁风格不同，这个站点的首页中包括了“白宫新闻”、“美军信息”、“政府部门”和“华盛顿邮报”几个栏目，还有华盛顿特区的天气情况。当然，如果是Google用户的话，你也可以自定义这个首页。这里是Google提供的常见问题说明。

　　这个站点被认为与微软为政府建立的FirstGov.gov相竞争——当然Google自己没有这么宣称。和FirstGov.gov不同的是，这个站点不属于政府，所以它可以不按照政府的意志来决定页面上的新闻的排列，而且，Google为搜索结果提供了缓存页面，按照Mark Giangrande的看法，这其中含有言论自由的意味。

　　本文资料来源于Tech Law Prof Blog，相关新闻报道：TCMNet, CNET, Information Week,Washington Post。

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”。

资料库

用公司发的电脑与律师联系引发的案件

一、翻译（意译）的案件简述

Curto v. Medical World Communications, Inc., et al.
Decided May 15, 2006, E. District of New York, No. 03 CV 6327 (2006 WL 1318387)
本案资料来源于 Evan Brown的Blawg: cyberlaw central

原告是被告的雇员，并且正与被告处于一个有关“公平就业机会委员会”的纠纷解决程序中（由于被歧视而引发的雇佣关系纠纷，不是法庭程序）。为此，她曾经在她的住宅办公室（home office）里使用公司发给她的两台笔记本电脑与她的律师进行通信。在通信的过程中她使用了公司以外的邮件服务以保证这些通讯不被传送到公司的邮件系统。在她交还电脑的时候，也已经删除了这些文件。被告后来雇佣了一名法律顾问检阅和恢复这两台电脑中的文件。原告于是以“律师和当事人之间的信息披露豁免权”（attorney-client privilege ）被侵害为由起诉。地方法院法官支持了诉讼请求，被告上诉。

被告的确曾有一个“所有的电脑都只能被用于公事”的电脑使用政策，并且规定任何在工作电脑上建立、存储或收发的个人数据都不会被作为隐私。但是，被告并没有严格地执行这个政策，从而使雇员对他们在公司电脑上的数据的安全并不担心。