Rights to special services for people with developmental disabilities in Sweden: The risks and benefits of a legislative approach

Several major pieces of legislation in Sweden have been developed and enacted during the twentieth century to enable people with disabilities to live as normal a life as possible. The legal instrument is not supposed to depend on political economic trends. Important changes in the new Act on Special Services for Developmentally Disabled Persons from 1986 include qualitative demands and the right to self-determination for these individuals. The special services covered by the law are called social rights. The implementation of these rights is under the jurisdiction of politically appointed councils in counties or municipalities. The decisions made by these authorities can be appealed in administrative courts. Judicial review is supposed to be an instrument for the protection of citizens from the authorities responsible for services. In theory, at least, when one disabled person wins a case in court, the precedent should trickle down to all individuals in similar predicaments. But this does not always occur. One problem is that the law has no sanctions to force local authorities to follow the precedents or to execute court decisions. This article focuses on the Act and on the interplay between court cases and precedents and the decisions made by local authorities.     

Making Judgements about parenting: The Example of Freeing for Adoption

Correspondence to Malcolm Hill, Senior Lecturer in Social work, University of Glasgow Department of Socail Administration and Soical work, Lilybank House, Bute Gardens, Glasgow G12 8RT. Summary Social workers frequently are involved in assessments aboutparenting. Thes issues are posed in a particularly Sharp formjudgements need to be made which may transfer parental rightsand reponsiblities permanently, as in cases of freeing for adoption.This article draws on a wider evaluation of freeing to identifythe key dimensions of parent child relations which influencedsocial work and work court decisions. In the majority of cases, there were requests to dispense withbirth parents' agreement to adoption. The principal corcumstanceswhich seen to warrant this involved inital neglect and/or poorbonding following by failure to respond to social work helpafter childern were in care. In most instances, the Courts endorsedthe local authorities position and granted freeing order. However,serveral judgments were in parents' favour. This was relatedsometimes to different perspectives on the relationship betweenfamily circumstances and the precise legal grounds for freeing.Also the lengthy precedures involved menat that in a few instancesthe parents had apperaed to imporve thier situation and so strengthenedthe legal case against freeing.     

Openness in adoption: Challenging the narrative of historical progress

One significant change in adoption practice that has occurred over the last four decades is the shift away from an expectation of confidentiality towards an expectation of openness in adoption. Openness is typically conceived in terms of the level of contact between adoptive and birth families following adoption or the extent to which adoption is openly discussed within the adoptive family. While these shifts in practice have generated controversy, they are largely supported by research evidence and have become a feature of contemporary adoptive family life. As a result, the narrative that has emerged in relation to openness in adoption is one of historical progress. In this paper, I argue that the lived reality of adoption is less straightforward than this narrative suggests. An analysis of the social and cultural context in which adoption operates suggests instead that the persistent feature of adoption throughout this historical period of increasing openness can be more accurately described as a state of enduring ambiguity regarding the nature of post‐adoption relationships. The paper highlights the potentially damaging consequences of overlooking this aspect of adoptive family life and comments on the role of policy in shaping openness in adoption.     

FACTORS INFLUENCING LEGAL DISPOSITION IN CHILD ABUSE INVESTIGATIONS

The study used an experimental design to investigate factors that influence a child protective service worker's decisions to recommend court action in cases of child abuse involving physical injury. The focus was decisions that are made early in an investigation. Seriousness of injury, whether or not there was a previous child abuse report, the consistency of the explanation regarding nature and location of injury, and parental reaction toward the worker were all found to significantly affect case disposition decisions. Although there was a general tendency among workers not to recommend court action, there was substantial disagreement regarding the appropriateness of court action in particular child abuse cases. The findings substantiate the need for clarification of decision-making criteria in child abuse cases.     

Collaborating with parents during intervention with parental agreement: Practitioner perspectives on procedural justice

With growing concerns about the efficacy and costs of intrusive child protection interventions and increasing recognition of citizen rights to participation in governance, jurisdictions are looking to collaborative alternatives that divert families from the courts and out‐of‐home care. In Queensland (Australia), “intervention with parental agreement” (IPA) is one such response. Under IPA, the statutory child protection authority can work collaboratively with families, without a court order, to respond to children assessed as “in need of protection.” In this paper, we use procedural justice theory as a lens to explore how IPA policy is enacted in practice. Procedural justice relates to the quality of treatment a person receives and the fairness of the process than an authority uses during decision‐making (Tyler, 2006 ). It is associated with voluntary cooperation and compliance; key practice concerns when working to address child maltreatment via parental agreement rather than court ordered intervention. We report on a qualitative study that utilized semistructured, in‐depth interviews to capture the perceptions of 30 practitioners regarding the factors that shape the extent to which they enact IPA policy in a procedurally fair manner. Strategies for enhancing procedurally just enactment of IPA policy in practice are discussed.     

Parenting through the lenses of risk and othering: Constructions of parental cannabis use in child protection court proceedings

The construction of parents' cannabis use in the context of child protection has far-reaching implications for how their parenting is perceived and assessed and for the decisions made regarding their children's lives. Yet little is known about the meanings various stakeholders in child protection processes attribute to parents' cannabis use. This paper aims to explore constructions of parents' cannabis use in child protection court proceedings and position them within a political and social context. A qualitative data mining method was used to examine 32 Family Court judgements in care proceedings that involved parents using cannabis in England and Wales. The analysis of the judgements revealed that most portrayed parents' cannabis use as a negative, deviant and harmful activity. Three constructions of cannabis use were identified: cannabis use as a risk to children, cannabis use as proof of parents' deficits, and cannabis use as (responsible) self-medication. The discussion considers the findings in light of two social and political processes that underpin child protection policy and practice: the adoption of a risk perspective and the manifestation of othering processes. Implications for policy and practice highlight the importance of developing a critical framework for responding to parental cannabis use.     

Contact person as a court-ordered solution in child visitation disputes in Sweden

Separated parents have the joint responsibility to give their children access to the other parent. If they fail to reach a visitation agreement, the District Court will decide on one for them. In Sweden one demand can be supervision by a contact person. This paper is about court‐ordered visitations including supervision by a contact person. Different public systems, with different interpretations of the best interest of the child, have to interact in these cases: the District Court makes the decision on supervised visitation and the Social Services appoint a contact person and follow the intervention up. There is a shortage of research on this use of a contact person, and an exploratory research project is carried through: Three small‐scale studies, based on group‐interviews with family law social workers, social files and individual interviews with contact persons, supplement each other and form together a Social Services perspective on the intervention. The results are presented according to five themes: Social Services and the court; the families and children concerned; contact arrangements; termination of the intervention; Social Services' perceptions of the intervention. The conclusion is that contact person is perceived as a positive solution for children in visitation disputes involving risk. However, the intervention brings up some contradictory interests important to be conscious of.     

Of peasants and publics in colonial India: Daduram's story

ABSTRACT

This article uses an exceptionally well-documented law case from the 1650s to offer a fresh perspective on the English experience of Atlantic settlement during its early years. It argues for the centrality of the Essex county quarter sessions court in the building of neighbourhood on the geographic and cultural margins of the Massachusetts Bay colony. By focusing on the north-eastern margin at Cape Ann, the analysis reveals aspects of state building through a common law judicial process which was just as important, but less readily apparent, in other settings. The article addresses three major historiographic areas, engaging with the historical literature on English neighbourhoods and English adaptation to the American environment, on the significance of witchcraft or maleficium in English societies, and on the nature and meanings of law, law courts and judicial process in the building of communities. Case documents also enable the use of some concepts and techniques of literary analysis related to the study of narrative, arguing that judicial verdicts selected and suppressed aspects of local stories elicited during the course of the investigation in order to craft an account of local neighbourhood that suited a broader cultural narrative of Massachusetts Bay’s political consolidation during the 1650s.     

Further Reinforcement of the Procedural Guarantees of the Right of Soviet Citizens to Turn to the Courts for Judicial Protection

The Principles of Civil Procedure of the USSR and the Union Republics provide that every party concerned has the right, under procedure established by law, to go to court for protection of a violated or challenged right or of an interest protected by law (Art. 5). Because of the particular importance of this right, the same article of the Principles provides that refusal to grant the right of recourse to a court is invalid.     

Explaining High‐Profile Coverage of State Supreme Court Decisions*

Objective. In this article, we investigate the decision of media in the U.S. states to give high‐profile coverage to state supreme court decisions. While research on the U.S. Supreme Court has forged an association between media coverage and the political salience of court decisions, scholars have been unable to examine such coverage in the increasingly important state courts of last resort. Methods. Utilizing new data of high‐profile coverage over time in these courts, we examine the extent to which case characteristics, judicial behavior, and institutional variation influence media attention. Our empirical model covers 28,045 state supreme court cases over all 50 states, between the years 1995–1998. Results. Our findings indicate that the likelihood of high‐profile coverage increases when certain case characteristics, particularly declarations of unconstitutionality, are present, in addition to dissent within a court. Despite the importance of institutional differences among state supreme courts, front‐page coverage is not affected by this variation. Conclusions. In our conclusions, we evaluate those scenarios in which high‐profile media coverage is more likely for state supreme court cases, and the possible implications this may have for judicial politics.     

明清白话小说中的过继叙事探析

过继叙事作为明清白话小说中相对独立的叙事单元，对小说的艺术表现起到了重要作用。过继叙事不仅是推动小说故事展开的动力和营造传奇效果的艺术手段，在发掘与之相关人物的隐秘心理及形象塑造上也起到了独特作用。另外，过继叙事在小说中的频繁出现，也反映了当时人对现实生活中过继关系的焦虑。明清白话小说中大量有关继子“复姓归宗”的叙述，在很大程度上可以看作是一种通过文学虚构平复心理焦虑的“需要”。     

Protecting children in Scotland: examining the impact of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995

This paper discusses findings from a small‐scale study of the impact on child protection practice following implementation of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995. The Act introduced three new measures to allow the state to intervene in families to protect a child where there is a risk of significant harm. These include the child protection order, the child assessment order and the exclusion order. The child protection order provides for the removal of a child to (or his or her retention in) a place of safety. In the first two years of the operation of the 1995 Act fewer applications were made for this order compared with similar provisions under the previous legislation. This reduction in applications appears to be related to unfamiliarity with new legislation; greater scrutiny resulting from the more formal application to the sheriff court; and the introduction of a new legal criterion for intervention, the presence or likelihood of ‘significant harm’. The introduction of the ‘no order’ principle into Scottish child care law is also likely to be a factor.     

Using the RE‐AIM framework to identify and describe best practice models in family‐based intervention development: A systematic review

The family unit carries with it a responsibility of possibly being the most important predictor of positive child development. The aim of this systematic review is to identify and describe best practice models or processes in family‐based intervention development. The following databases were included in the review: PsychArticles, Academic Search Complete, ERIC, SocIndex, Sage, Sabinet, and Pubmed. Peer‐reviewed, English language, qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods in nature conducted within the last 10 years. Interventions were required to include families as part of the programme as well as describe the model or process used in intervention development. Two self‐developed data extraction tables were developed for this review. The articles included for review were heterogeneous in terms of the outcomes, and so a narrative synthesis was used. After yielding an initial search of 400 studies, 28 articles were finally included for extraction and analysis with varying levels of intervention strength. Interventions are further described in terms of reach, effectiveness, adoption, implementation, and maintenance dimensions. A feasible intervention appears to be one that is flexible, engages processes to recruit those who are most at‐risk and is facilitated by someone known to or from the same community as the participants, can retain its participants, and can be evaluated with the same participants at a minimum of 6 months later.     

"外国法的查明和解释"的条文设计与论证

外国法的查明和解释是法院在审理涉外民商事案件时通常会遇到的问题.在这方面,我国<民法通则>第八章"涉外民事关系的法律适用"对此缺乏规范,因而成为立法中的一个空白.尽管最高人民法院以司法解释的形式做了补充,但是司法实践还是比较混乱.文章为配合我国正在进行的"涉外民事关系的法律适用法"的立法,对其中的"外国法的查明和解释"的条文做了具体设计,并从立法、理论和实践的角度,对外国法的查明方法、无法查明外国法时的救济以及外国法的解释问题进行了充分的说明和详细的论证.     

Regulating inclusivity: reforming adoption law for the 21st century

ABSTRACT The process of the reform of current adoption law in England and Wales to better meet the needs of adoption practice has been a lengthy one. The extent to which the regulatory framework set out in the Adoption Act 1976 reflects an exclusive model of adoption no longer suited to current practice is well recognized. In this paper the reforms (about to be) enacted in the Adoption and Children Act 2002 are critically considered in the light of the identified requirements of a regulatory system supportive of an inclusive model better suited to the changed nature of adoption. Key themes running through the requirements are explored in the context of the reforms, and the extent to which the paramountcy of the welfare of the child will be underpinned by respect and support for the needs and rights of all parties to the so‐called adoption triangle. Whilst the new legislation is specific to England and Wales, the issues discussed are relevant not only in other common law jurisdictions but throughout the developed world.     

证据损害理论：潜伏性毒物致害侵权诉讼中的可选择理论

在潜伏性毒物致害侵权诉讼中,由于经历时间久远、证据缺失以及造成损害结果的事实不确定等因素,对诉讼裁判的准确性造成极大困难。不确定性的存在以及后来法庭无法对事实进行裁定,有时是由于当事人的不当行为所致。这些不当行为人才应该对案件事实的不确定性以及相应的致错风险承担责任。是否应该让这些当事人承担这种证据损害的责任、其法律标准应该如何设置以及对于那些遭受证据损害者法律应该给予他们何种救济都是这种特殊侵权诉讼中可选择理论———证据损害理论所要探讨的重大议题。     

The social composition of plaintiffs and defendants in the Peacemaker court,Leiden, 1750–54

This article assesses the social positions of the plaintiffs and defendants who appeared before a small claims court, namely the Peacemaker court (Vredemakers) of the city of Leiden in the Dutch Republic in the eighteenth century, a low threshold law court that boasted a quick and inexpensive procedure. Analysis of the social positions of the court's plaintiffs and defendants helps reveal the extent to which lower social groups actively made use of it. The article is based on linkage between a sample of users of the Peacemaker court during the years 1750–54 and a census of 1749 comprising socio-economic data for the entire Leiden population. The court clientele of the Peacemaker court was distinctively elitist. The court was thus first and foremost a forum for an inner group of more well-to-do households who were firmly established in the local community. The Peacemaker court was notably inexpensive and simple in its procedures, yet lower social groups remained markedly reticent to file complaints there, revealing a significant socio-cultural gap between these groups and the burgomasters and aldermen who staffed and maintained the courts.     

The reform and development of old age pension policy in China

Despite the anticipation that the legal system would be able to offer a civilized and institutionalized means in settling the infringement of homeowners' property and consumer rights, empirical evidence has instead indicated a decline in the employment of litigation in dispute resolution. This paper attempts to examine the complex interaction between the rule of law and homeowner activism in upholding their rights. Information on property related litigation was collected from online court rulings in Shanghai which is supplemented with in-depth interviews with homeowner activists who were involved in litigation. In this paper, the rule of law in China is analysed within a wider socio-political context of neighbourhood governance and the emerging civil society. Despite the inadequacy in the legal system in protecting homeowners' rights, empirical evidence has shown that homeowner activists have explored the legal system, not just as a means of redress but also to employ creatively as part of their action strategy in settling their problems outside the court.     

Powerful Youth: Determining Successful Participation in an HIV Support Group for Youth

In this article, the authors report on a qualitative study that explored the use of narrative therapy with a diverse group of older adults dealing with mental health and substance misuse issues. Narrative therapy supports individuals to critically assess their lives and develop alternative and empowering life stories that aim to keep the problem in its place. Although the literature suggests this is a promising intervention for individuals, there is a lack of research on narrative therapy and group work. Aiming to address this gap, the authors developed and researched a narrative therapy group for older adults coping with mental health and substance misuse issues in Toronto, Canada. Taking an ethnographic approach, field notes and interviews provided rich data on how, when, and for whom, such a group could be beneficial. Findings contribute to the literature on group work, older adults, and narrative therapy.