ECONOMIC AFFAIRS, Issue 1 2004
Martin Howe
Less attention is paid to the European Court of Justice than to other European Union institutions when discussing the centralising tendencies of the Union. However, the court has given an important impetus to the process of centralisation through its individual decisions and also through its tendency to give effect in its decisions to what it believes to be the,purpose'of EU treaties rather than to the text of the treaties. The proposed EU constitution will significantly widen the power of the European Court since it includes articles which are wide open to a number of different interpretations, and it will be for the court to decide how they should be interpreted. [source]

ALFRED RUSSEL WALLACE: IN A COURT OF HIS OWN,

EVOLUTION, Issue 12 2004
John van Wyhe
No abstract is available for this article. [source]

BEYOND POLITICS AND POSITIONS: A CALL FOR COLLABORATION BETWEEN FAMILY COURT AND DOMESTIC VIOLENCE PROFESSIONALS

FAMILY COURT REVIEW, Issue 3 2008
Peter Salem
The domestic violence advocacy and family court communities have each grown dramatically over the last three decades. Although these professional communities share many values in common, they often find themselves at odds with one another on a host of issues. This article examines the practical, political, definitional, and ideological differences between the two communities and calls for them to join forces and collaborate on behalf of children and families. [source]

A CRITICAL EXAMINATION OF THE SUITABILITY AND LIMITATIONS OF PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTS IN FAMILY COURT

FAMILY COURT REVIEW, Issue 2 2007
Steven K. Erickson
Psychologists are frequently consulted by the courts to provide forensic evaluations in a variety of family court proceedings. As part of their evaluations, psychologists often use psychological tests to assess parents, guardians, and children. These tests can have profound effects on how psychologists arrive at their opinions and are often cited in their reports to the court. However, psychological tests vary substantially in their suitability for these purposes. Most projective tests in particular appear to possess little scientific merit for evaluations within family court proceedings. Despite these serious limitations, expert testimony derived from evaluations using both projective and objective tests is often admitted uncontested. This article reviews the psychometric properties of psychological tests that are widely used in family court proceedings, cautions against their unfettered use, and calls upon attorneys to inform themselves of the limitations of evaluations that incorporate these tests. [source]

THE BENEFITS AND RISKS OF CHILD CUSTODY EVALUATORS MAKING RECOMMENDATIONS TO THE COURT:

FAMILY COURT REVIEW, Issue 2 2005
A Response to Tippins, Wittmann
In their article, Tippins and Wittmann articulate a strong position against custody evaluators making specific custody recommendations to the court. This response will focus on my thoughts about their concepts and my belief that recommendations can be useful and appropriate some of the time, even though there may be significant problems with certain types of recommendations and problems with some evaluators. [source]

POISSON VERSUS BINOMIAL: APPOINTMENT OF JUDGES TO THE U.S. SUPREME COURT

AUSTRALIAN & NEW ZEALAND JOURNAL OF STATISTICS, Issue 3 2010
Vassilly Voinov
Summary The problem of discriminating between the Poisson and binomial models is discussed in the context of a detailed statistical analysis of the number of appointments of the U.S. Supreme Court justices from 1789 to 2004. Various new and existing tests are examined. The analysis shows that both simple Poisson and simple binomial models are equally appropriate for describing the data. No firm statistical evidence in favour of an exponential Poisson regression model was found. Two attendant results were obtained by simulation: firstly, that the likelihood ratio test is the most powerful of those considered when testing for the Poisson versus binomial and, secondly, that the classical variance test with an upper-tail critical region is biased. [source]

THE ROLE OF THE HIGH COURT IN FEDERAL ARBITRATION DURING THE GREAT DEPRESSION: PRESERVING A FUTURE FOR ,REASON AND MORAL SUASION'?

AUSTRALIAN ECONOMIC HISTORY REVIEW, Issue 2 2008
Rohan Price
arbitration; Australia; depression; legal institutions; wage fixation Between 1929 and 1933 the Australian federal system of conciliation and arbitration came under economic and political strain. This article reveals that arbitration proved to be an adaptable industrial relations framework for dealing with economic depression. While the monetary entitlements of workers were reduced, the legal instrumentality that conferred the wage cuts, the Arbitration Court, itself defied abolition and evolved to be a protective body. There was a subtle and previously unremarked interaction in the regulatory functions of the High Court, the Arbitration Court, and the Commonwealth Parliament characterised by the purposeful abstention of the High Court and Scullin Government and the activism of the Arbitration Court. [source]

PUNISHING THE "MODEL MINORITY": ASIAN-AMERICAN CRIMINAL SENTENCING OUTCOMES IN FEDERAL DISTRICT COURTS,

CRIMINOLOGY, Issue 4 2009
BRIAN D. JOHNSON
Research on racial and ethnic disparities in criminal punishment is expansive but remains focused almost exclusively on the treatment of black and Hispanic offenders. The current study extends contemporary research on the racial patterning of punishments by incorporating Asian-American offenders. Using data from the United States Sentencing Commission (USSC) for FY1997,FY2000, we examine sentencing disparities in federal district courts for several outcomes. The results of this study indicate that Asian Americans are punished more similarly to white offenders compared with black and Hispanic offenders. These findings raise questions for traditional racial conflict perspectives and lend support to more recent theoretical perspectives grounded in attribution processes of the courtroom workgroup. The article concludes with a discussion of future directions for research on understudied racial and ethnic minority groups. [source]

EFFECTIVENESS OF DRUG TREATMENT COURTS: EVIDENCE FROM A RANDOMIZED TRIAL,

CRIMINOLOGY AND PUBLIC POLICY, Issue 2 2003
DENISE C. GOTTFREDSON
Research Summary: Study randomly assigned 235 offenders to drug treatment court (DTC) or "treatment as usual." Analyses of official records collected over a two-year follow-up period show that DTC is reducing crime in a population of drug-addicted offenders. DTC subjects who participated in treatment were significantly less likely to recidivate than were both untreated drug court subjects and control subjects. Policy Implications: Continued enthusiasm for DTCs is warranted. Both sanctions and treatment are important elements of the DTC model. However, DTCs will not necessarily result in cost reductions because DTC and control cases are incarcerated for approximately equal numbers of days. Implementation fidelity is important, and DTCs can be strengthened if they engage a higher percentage of their clients in drug treatment. [source]

GUEST EDITORS' INTRODUCTION TO SPECIAL ISSUE ON ALIENATED CHILDREN IN DIVORCE AND SEPARATION: EMERGING APPROACHES FOR FAMILIES AND COURTS

FAMILY COURT REVIEW, Issue 1 2010
Barbara Jo Fidler
First page of article [source]

ONE CASE,ONE SPECIALIZED JUDGE: WHY COURTS HAVE AN OBLIGATION TO MANAGE ALIENATION AND OTHER HIGH-CONFLICT CASES

FAMILY COURT REVIEW, Issue 1 2010
Hon. Donna J. Martinson
This article challenges the traditional approach to alienation and other high-conflict cases in which many different generalist judges deal with the case. The objectives of the judicial process, dealing with cases in a just, timely, and affordable way that instils confidence in the public and litigants, cannot be met unless high-conflict cases are actively managed by one specialist family law judge. Allowing parents in high-conflict cases to decide when and how often their case should come before the court exacerbates the negative effects of the litigation on children. This article concludes that, unless the litigation is properly managed by specialist judges, the justice system unintentionally causes harm to children. [source]

INTRODUCTION TO SPECIAL ISSUE ON UNIFIED FAMILY COURTS

FAMILY COURT REVIEW, Issue 2 2008
Barbara A. Babb
No abstract is available for this article. [source]

SUMMIT ON UNIFIED FAMILY COURTS: SERVING CHILDREN AND FAMILIES EFFICIENTLY, EFFECTIVELY, AND RESPONSIBLY

FAMILY COURT REVIEW, Issue 2 2008
Karen J. Mathis
As president of the American Bar Association when the "Summit on Unified Family Courts" convened in May 2007, Karen J. Mathis welcomed summit attendees. Recounting the many reasons children wind up in court, Mathis observed that society is lucky if these problems even come before the courts. Too often, she said, the underlying problems of destructive behavior among youth are lost in the shuffle of too many lawyers, case workers, and judges. "Many times they're ignored by the professionals among us who are not trained to be aware that the problems even exist," she said. The solution to this fragmented approach is unified family courts, she concluded. [source]

THE AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION AND UNIFIED FAMILY COURTS

FAMILY COURT REVIEW, Issue 1 2004
Introduction to a Survey
No abstract is available for this article. [source]

SPECIAL ISSUE: SEPARATED AND UNMARRIED FATHERS AND THE COURTS

FAMILY COURT REVIEW, Issue 3 2003
Marsha Kline Pruett
No abstract is available for this article. [source]

MAKING FAMILIES AND CHILDREN A HIGH PRIORITY IN THE COURTS

FAMILY COURT REVIEW, Issue 4 2002
California's Center for Families, Children & the Courts
This article describes the California Administrative Office of the Court's (AOC's) Center for Families, Children & the Courts (CFCC). CFCC is an interdisciplinary unit that brings together all of the AOC's work on statewide policies and practices related to families and children in the court system. CFCC thus models the unified family court model within the state AOC. CFCC's projects and activities are described to show the effectiveness of its multidisciplinary and collaborative approach in addressing complex policy and practice issues. It is hoped that readers may discover aspects of CFCC's work that could be adapted to their own jurisdiction or practice. [source]

Violent recidivism among mentally disordered offenders in Japan

CRIMINAL BEHAVIOUR AND MENTAL HEALTH, Issue 3 2007
Kazuo Yoshikawa
Background,A new forensic mental health law was enacted in Japan in 2003, enabling development of specialist services. Before their establishment, it is important to determine the nature, frequency and correlates of the problems they are designed to ameliorate. Aims,To establish rates of violent recidivism among mentally disordered offenders before the new legislation, and examine associated risk factors. Method,Data were extracted from one complete annual (1980) national cohort of people judged by the Court or prosecutor to be without responsibility for a criminal offence, or of sufficiently diminished responsibility for it to be diverted for psychiatric treatment. The outcome measure was violent recidivism after community discharge and before 1991. Results,Fifty-two (10%) of 489 in the cohort were arrested or convicted of further violent offences. Violent recidivism was most strongly associated with a substance-related disorder, but histories of violence, homelessness and short index admissions were independently related. Conclusions,Violent recidivism was so unusual that, on this outcome, it could take many years to show any effect of the new service. Desistance from substance use, compliance with treatment and maintenance of stable housing may be better indicators of success, and their achievement a good preventive strategy. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Psychology brings justice: the science of forensic psychology,

CRIMINAL BEHAVIOUR AND MENTAL HEALTH, Issue 3 2003
Gisli H. Gudjonsson Professor of Forensic Psychology
In this paper the focus is on one aspect of forensic psychology: the development of psychological instruments, a social psychological model and assessment procedures for evaluating the credibility of witnesses and police detainees during interviewing. Clinically grounded case work and research has impacted on police interviewing and practice, the admissibility of expert psychological testimony and the outcome of cases of miscarriage of justice. After describing the research that laid the foundations for advancement of scientific knowledge in this area, a brief review is presented of 22 high-profile murder cases where convictions based on confession evidence have been quashed on appeal between 1989 and 2001, often primarily on the basis of psychological evidence. The review of the cases demonstrates that psychological research and expert testimony in cases of disputed confessions have had a profound influence on the practice and ruling of the Court of Appeal for England and Wales and the British House of Lords. The cases presented in this paper show that it is wrong to assume that only persons with learning disability or those who are mentally ill make unreliable or false confessions. Personality factors, such as suggestibility, compliance, high trait anxiety and antisocial personality traits, are often important in rendering a confession unreliable. Future research needs to focus more on the role of personality factors in rendering the evidence of witnesses and suspects potentially unreliable. Copyright © 2003 Whurr Publishers Ltd. [source]

UNITED STATES V. BOOKER AS A NATURAL EXPERIMENT: USING EMPIRICAL RESEARCH TO INFORM THE FEDERAL SENTENCING POLICY DEBATE,

CRIMINOLOGY AND PUBLIC POLICY, Issue 3 2007
PAUL J. HOFER
Research Summary: In United States v. Booker, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the federal sentencing guidelines must be considered advisory, rather than mandatory, if they are to remain constitutional under the Sixth Amendment. Since the decision, the U.S. Sentencing Commission has provided policy makers with accurate and current data on changes and continuity in federal sentencing practices. Unlike previous changes in legal doctrine, Booker immediately increased the rates of upward and downward departures from the guideline range. Government-sponsored downward departures remain the leading category of outside,the-range sentences. The rate of within-range sentences, although lower than in the period immediately preceding Booker, remains near rates observed earlier in the guidelines era. Despite the increase in departures, average sentence lengths for the overall caseload remain stable, because of offsetting increases in the seriousness of the crimes being sentenced and in the severity of penalties for those crimes. Analyses of the reasons that judges reported for downward departures suggest that treatment of criminal history and offender characteristics are the two leading areas of dissatisfaction with the guidelines. Policy Implications: Assessment of changes in sentencing practices following Booker by different observers depends partly on competing institutional perspectives and on different degrees of trust in the judgment of judges, prosecutors, the Sentencing Commission, and Congress. No agreement on whether Booker has bettered or worsened the system can be achieved until agreement exists on priorities among the purposes of sentencing and the goals of sentencing reform. Both this lack of agreement and an absence of needed data make consensus on Booker's effects on important sentencing goals, such as reduction of unwarranted disparity, unlikely in the near future. Similarly, lack of baseline data before Booker on the effectiveness of federal sentencing at crime control makes before-after comparisons impossible. Despite these limitations, research provides a sounder framework for policy making than do anecdotes or speculation and sets valuable empirical parameters for the federal sentencing policy debate. [source]

SELECTIVE ABORTION IN BRAZIL: THE ANENCEPHALY CASE

DEVELOPING WORLD BIOETHICS, Issue 2 2007
DEBORA DINIZ
ABSTRACT This paper discusses the Brazilian Supreme Court ruling on the case of anencephaly. In Brazil, abortion is a crime against the life of a fetus, and selective abortion of non-viable fetuses is prohibited. Following a paradigmatic case discussed by the Brazilian Supreme Court in 2004, the use of abortion was authorized in the case of a fetus with anencephaly. The objective of this paper is to analyze the ethical arguments of the case, in particular the strategy of avoiding the moral status of the fetus, the cornerstone thesis of the Catholic Church. [source]

THE EUROPEAN COURT: THE FORGOTTEN POWERHOUSE BUILDING THE EUROPEAN SUPERSTATE

The global diversion of pharmaceutical drugs

ADDICTION, Issue 3 2009
India: the third largest illicit opium producer?
ABSTRACT Aims This paper explores India's role in the world illicit opiate market, particularly its role as a producer. India, a major illicit opiate consumer, is also the sole licensed exporter of raw opium: this unique status may be enabling substantial diversion to the illicit market. Methods Participant observation and interviews were carried out at eight different sites. Information was also drawn from all standard secondary sources and the analysis of about 180 drug-related criminal proceedings reviewed by Indian High Courts and the Supreme Court from 1985 to 2001. Findings Diversion from licit opium production takes place on such a large scale that India may be the third largest illicit opium producer after Afghanistan and Burma. With the possible exceptions of 2005 and 2006, 200,300 tons of India's opium may be diverted yearly. After estimating India's opiate consumption on the basis of UN-reported prevalence estimates, we find that diversion from licit production might have satisfied a quarter to more than a third of India's illicit opiate demand to 2004. Conclusions India is not only among the world's largest consumer of illicit opiates but also one of the largest illicit opium producers. In contrast to all other illicit producers, India owes the latter distinction not to blatantly illicit cultivation but to diversion from licit cultivation. India's experience suggests the difficulty of preventing substantial leakage, even in a relatively well-governed nation. [source]

Evolution of hazardous waste combustors MACT standards

ENVIRONMENTAL PROGRESS & SUSTAINABLE ENERGY, Issue 4 2001
Charles W. Lamb Ph.D.
This year, on July 24, the DC Circuit Court ruled that the EPA had not correctly derived emission standards, and vacated the MACT (Maximum Achievable Control Technology) rule for Hazardous Waste Combustors (HWC) [1, 2]. A major complaint, voiced by the Sierra Club, was that the MACT methodology was misapplied in a manner that produced overly lenient standards. Industry and trade associations argued just the opposite. The Sierra Club won the first round when the court agreed that the emission standards should be based on the average of the best-performing 12% of units in each category. The next question was, "What will be the regulations until the final standards can be developed?" This caused considerable angst because, if no standards were in place by May 15, 2002, control would revert to case-by-case permits by Federal and State regulatory agencies as set forth in Section 112 of the Clean Air Act. Obviously, that would be the antithesis of the Congressional mandate and the objectives of environmental groups. The Sierra Club and most litigants did not want the uncertainties and inconsistencies this would introduce. [source]

The Lisbon Judgment of the German Constitutional Court: A Court-Ordered Strengthening of the National Legislature in the EU

EUROPEAN LAW JOURNAL, Issue 5 2010
Philipp Kiiver
This article discusses the judgment of the German Constitutional Court on the constitutionality of the Treaty of Lisbon, concentrating on the court's insistence on the prerogatives of the national legislature. The court's insistence on prior national legislative ratification for the application of the simplified treaty revision procedure and of similar de facto amendment procedures, including the flexibility clause, is conservative but understandable from the perspective of German constitutional law. The prescription of prior bicameral ratification for the application of the flexibility clause makes the German government procedurally one of the most tightly controlled in the EU, although this would not be unique, and the effect of such control will depend on the cleavage between the government and the national legislature, especially the German upper chamber. None of the procedures insisted upon by the court are incompatible with EU Treaty law. Whether the new procedures will actually enhance the democratic legitimacy of EU measures in German perception will depend on the degree to which political parties in the national legislature will publicly politicise their stance on the decisions in question, allowing voters to hold them to account. All the court can do is prescribe opportunities where such politicisation may take place. [source]

Taking Language Seriously: An Analysis of Linguistic Reasoning and Its Implications in EU Law

EUROPEAN LAW JOURNAL, Issue 4 2010
Elina Paunio
This article discusses legal reasoning at the European Court of Justice (ECJ). The following questions are addressed. First, the authors look at the way linguistic arguments are used in ECJ case-law. Second, they consider whether the requirements of legal certainty, and more specifically that of predictability, may be fulfilled by reference to linguistic arguments in a multilingual legal system. The theoretical starting-point is that of open-endedness of language: no means exists to definitely pin down the meaning of words. Defining the meaning of words in a legal context is necessarily a matter of choice involving evaluative considerations. Consequently, when the ECJ uses linguistic arguments to justify a decision, it is an active agent choosing the meaning of words in a specific case. Essentially, the authors argue that legal reasoning based on linguistic arguments is particularly problematic from the viewpoint of legal certainty and predictability. In this respect, the key importance of systemic and teleological argumentation is emphasised in assuring convincing, acceptable and transparent legal reasoning especially in the context of multilingual EU law. [source]

The Function of the Proportionality Principle in EU Law

EUROPEAN LAW JOURNAL, Issue 2 2010
Tor-Inge Harbo
In this article the author assesses the proportionality principle in EU law from a legal theoretical and constitutional perspective with the aim of discovering the function of the principle. Having first discussed the implications of the proportionality principle being a general principle of law, and what function it has,namely to secure legitimacy for judicial decisions,the author suggests that there are several ways in which the principle can be interpreted. There is, nevertheless, a limit to this interpretation determined by the proposed function of the principle. In the third part of the article, the European Court of Justice's (ECJ's) interpretation of the principle is assessed. The assessment clearly shows that the ECJ is interpreting the principle in different distinguishable ways. The question could, however, be raised as to whether the ECJ in some areas is interpreting the principle in a way that undermines the very function of it. [source]

Family Reunification Rights of (Migrant) Union Citizens: Towards a More Liberal Approach

EUROPEAN LAW JOURNAL, Issue 5 2009
Alina Tryfonidou
Over the years, in the case-law of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) determining the availability of family reunification rights for migrant Member State nationals, the pendulum has swung back and forth, from a ,moderate approach' in cases such as Morson and Jhanjan (1982) and Akrich (2003), towards a more ,liberal approach' in cases such as Carpenter (2002) and Jia (2007). Under the Court's ,moderate approach', family reunification rights in the context of the Community's internal market policy are only granted in situations where this is necessary for enabling a Member State national to move between Member States in the process of exercising one of the economic fundamental freedoms; in other words, where there is a sufficient link between the exercise of one of those freedoms and the need to grant family reunification rights under EC law. Conversely, under the Court's ,liberal approach', in order for family reunification rights to be bestowed by EC law, it suffices that the situation involves the exercise of one of the market freedoms and that the claimants have a familial link which is covered by Community law; in other words, there is no need to illustrate that there is a link between the grant of such rights and the furtherance of the Community's aim of establishing an internal market. The recent judgments of the ECJ in Eind and Metock (and its order in Sahin) appear to have decidedly moved the pendulum towards the ,liberal approach' side. In this article, it will be explained that the fact that the EU is aspiring to be not only a supranational organisation with a successful and smoothly functioning market but also a polity, the citizens of which enjoy a number of basic rights which form the core of a meaningful status of Union citizenship, is the major driving force behind this move. In particular, the move towards a wholehearted adoption of the ,liberal approach' seems to have been fuelled by a desire, on the part of the Court, to respond to a number of problems arising from its ,moderate approach' and which appear to be an anomaly in a citizens' Europe. These are: a) the incongruity caused between the (new) aim of the Community of creating a meaningful status of Union citizenship and the treatment of Union citizens (under the Court's ,moderate approach') as mere factors of production; and b) the emergence of reverse discrimination. The article will conclude with an explanation of why the adoption of the Court's liberal approach does not appear to be a proper solution to these problems. [source]

Deploying the Classic ,Community Method' in the Social Policy Field: The Example of the Acquired Rights Directive

EUROPEAN LAW JOURNAL, Issue 2 2009
Gavin Barrett
The use of the Community method of legislation, in particular the deployment of directives, has for a long time been at the core of EC labour market policy. This article seeks to reflect on the lessons to be learned from the experience of the adoption and operation of one particularly significant directive, namely the Acquired Rights Directive, and on the experience of its transposition in one Member State, Ireland. Among features noted at the EU level are the watering down of the Commission's initial legislative ambitions; the substantial lacunae, failures to address issues and ambiguities incorporated in the text of the directive, the consequent enlarged role for the Court of Justice and the apparent difficulty in changing policy direction in the event of errors being made. As regards the Irish experience of transposing the directive, lessons learnt have included the importance of the means of implementation chosen by the Member State; the obstructive effect which national industrial relations systems may have on the evolution of a common European approach; the significance which attaches to national sanctions and enforcement mechanisms; the importance attaching to the degree of collective organisation in workplaces where the implementing legislation is sought to be relied upon; and the potential which the implementation of a directive has for disruption of the harmony of a national policy approach. Finally, the use of a form of social dialogue in the implementation of employment-related directives in Ireland is also commented upon. [source]

Ironies in Human Rights Protection in the EU: Pre-Accession Conditionality and Post-Accession Conundrums

EUROPEAN LAW JOURNAL, Issue 1 2009
Anneli Albi
In the wake of the extensive scrutiny of the human rights credentials of the new Member States under the EU pre-accession conditionality, which itself was riddled with paradoxes, this article considers a rather unexpected irony thrown up by the accession of these countries. It is that the post-communist constitutional courts, which have been applauded for vigorous protection of fundamental rights after the fall of the Communist regime that was marked by nihilism to rights, have come rather close to having to downgrade the protection standards after accession, due to the new constraints of supremacy of EC law. The article will consider the sugar market cases of the Hungarian and Czech Constitutional Courts and of the Estonian Supreme Court, which appear to add weight to the concerns that have been voiced in some older Member States about the fundamental rights protection in the EU. Indeed such concerns were recently also addressed in the concurring opinions to the Bosphorus judgment of the European Court of Human Rights. [source]