1999年，ヴァーモント州最高裁は，婚姻制度が与える便益を異性関係に限定した州法は違憲であるとの判決を下した。これを契機に，同性婚をめぐる広汎な民主的討議か展開され，2000年，全米初のシビル・ユニオン法が成立した。本稿は，道徳立法の刷新をめぐる，この政治過程を紹介し，政府・議会，裁判所，市民社会というアクターがどのように行動したかを描写する。そして，人びとの菩き生き方に関わる道徳的争点が争われた本事例において特徴的であった点として，①「十分に内部化した外部勢力」による自生的闘争，②市民教育や説得といった観点を持たずひたすら呪祖に明け暮れる「原坪上義者の自己破滅」，③原理的規制の枠組みを提示しながら，政策選択に一定の幅を持たせ政治過程に解決を委ねるという，裁判所の「引き金」機能を指摘する。

This study examined the use of psychiatric opinions by looking at the interview process of a victim of a sex crime who received a diagnosis and psychiatric opinion from psychiatrists as part of criminal proceedings for assessing the victim’s trauma and possible future psychological issues. The use of psychiatric opinions in the criminal trial revealed the victim’s psychological state, which even the victim was unable to fully comprehend, and proved to be useful for criminal trial proceedings. Furthermore, incorporating the psychiatric opinion into the interview with the psychiatrist gave the victim an opportunity to face his/her trauma, which suggests that the process can be an effective psychoeducational tool in dealing with trauma. From the above, it is suggested that mental health professionals involved in the interview process should act as both the victim’s spokesperson by working with psychiatrists and the victim’s interpreter by explaining the meaning of psychiatric opinions and the thought process of psychiatrists.

　　Abstract  In this research, we consider the “subject” in mathematics as a “sign”―in Peirce’s semiotics―that directs our attention to different things, and we expose its evolutional development in a mathematics class from the perspective of its ontological status.  We analyzed subjects through a lesson using the square root in the 9th grade while comparing them with Euler’s mathematical activity in “Analysin Infinitorum” from the viewpoint of Peirce’s “ten classes of signs.”  The results highlighted the following points.  

　　First, we described the evolutional development of subjects in a mathematics class and Euler’s mathematical activity using the ten classes of signs.  Because both cases are similar in that the subjects develop almost evolutionarily in the order of the classes, it may be inferred that the mathematics class has a structure similar to Euler’s mathematical activity.  Second, both cases, however, have a different point.  In the mathematics class, there is occasion for the class to change from “legisign (sign as law)” to “sinsign (individual sign).”  In other words, the subject in mathematics exists within the classes, including the sinsign, without existing for many members when the sign is appeared under the law or concept which exists for only some members in the mathematics class.