Do Lawyers Make a Difference?

While legal representation might be expected to make a difference to the outcome of criminal proceedings, much of the relevant evidence is either inconclusive or contrary to expectations. ‘This paper examines the relationship between legal representation and outcome in six Melbourne magistrates’ courts, arguing that, even after controlling for legally relevant variables, representation is strongly related to concessionary withdrawals, plea, verdict, and verdict in contested cases. Representation is also related to whether defendants receive adjournments, but is not related to imprisonment nor to fine or length of licence disqualification periods. Reasons for this pattern of relationships are discussed as are their implications.     

The Application of Pareto＇s 80/20 Rule to Law： A Quantitative Analysis Based upon Trials Involving a Plea of Guilty

在法律领域，特别是在诉讼等争端解决领域，司法机关可以通过简化简单多数和优化复杂少数实现最优司法资源的配置。司法机关简化简单多数，是要在保证法律主体基本权利的前提下，本着简化程序而不简化权利的原则降低司法活动的边际成本，提高司法效率并促进司法公正。基于被告人认罪案件审理的定量分析结果，中国刑事司法领域通过简化简单多数来优化复杂少数的资源配置机制还有较大空间。2012年《刑事诉讼法》确认的被告人认罪案件简易程序的实施，需要充分保障被告人获得律师帮助的权利，并提高侦查、起诉和审判等环节的司法效率，才能在整体上科学配置刑事司法资源并有效促进司法公正。     

Drink-Drivers and the Judicial Process: An Analysis that Relates to The Defendant's Perspective

By making ‘meaning’ the focus of study this paper offers a novel way of understanding the legal prosecution of drink-drivers: the analysis relates to the defendant's perspective. Data were derived from observations of hearings in a lower criminal court in Western Australia, and interviews with 66 individuals who appeared on drink-driving charges. The findings emphasise the significance for the accused driver of the pre-court procedures. It is demonstrated that whilst most drink-driver defendants plead guilty because they accept their guilt, their decision on the plea is constrained by their desire to minimize the various costs associated with judicial procedure. The question of whether or not the present system of processing drink-drivers protects the interests of the accused merits further investigation.     

Welfare Ideologies and Theories of Federalism

This paper examines from a theoretical perspective how each of three major ideological orientations towards the welfare state (structural left; social democracy; new/far right) might incorporate an intermediate level of interest between a central and local governments—namely, a province. While the analysis is most straightforward at either end of the spectrum, it is complex for the middle grouping. The paper observes one commonality across all points on the ideological spectrum: there is an increasing loss of faith and disillusionment everywhere with big government, with a resulting focus on more local neighbourhoods and communities (which may or may not include provinces). A brief case example, dealing with the development of legal aid in Canada, is presented for illustrative purposes. The paper ultimately suggests caution: in a world of monetarist economic policies, a central government must always retain pre-eminent interest.     

Stakeholder behavior and legislative influence: A case study of recreational water rights in Colorado

Colorado water law is based on 150 years of legal, constitutional, and administrative precedent. Much of this precedent encourages traditional consumptive uses of water and impedes non-consumptive uses. Throughout Colorado’s history, the water law system has evolved to include new codified uses of water. This paper analyzes the behavior of stakeholder groups that drove legislative changes in the Colorado General Assembly in the most recent example of this evolution—the inclusion of non-consumptive recreational in-channel water rights as a codified use of water. Using a qualitative case study research method, this study finds that collaboration among formerly disenfranchised stakeholders explains their legislative success despite the lesser degree of influence these groups have over water rights in Colorado.     

Comparisons of strategies to prevent breast cancer mortality

A health system should meet the health needs of the population. Given limited resources, choices are made about problems--typically, diseases--to attack. Then, choices must be made as to how to identify, treat, and ultimately, prevent their occurrences. This process is the subject of this article; it uses the case of breast cancer to examine allocation of resources to disease prevention and treatment. The paper reviews current allocation patterns among three strategies for prevention: primary, secondary, and tertiary. Each varies with respect to where the disease process is halted and in the amount of technological support required. Currently, the U.S. health care system allocates most resources to tertiary prevention, with scant support of primary and limited support of secondary prevention. Possible explanations for the current allocation patterns are discussed. Areas where social sciences have made contributions are highlighted. Finally, cost-effectiveness analyses are presented to illustrate a relatively balanced method for making decisions about future allocations.     

Conspiracy to corrupt public morals and the ‘unlawful’ status of homosexuality in Britain after 1967

The common law offence of conspiracy to corrupt public morals has a long though controversial history in English law. It was a charge mainly employed against obscenity, procuring prostitution, keeping a disorderly house, public indecency and public mischief. These could be interpreted by the courts as facets of a single offence known as conspiracy to corrupt public morals. The charge was used intermittently in the twentieth century, mainly against the arrangement of prostitution and ‘disorderly houses’ used by homosexual men. It was applied again in 1960 in the Ladies Directory case and was subsequently used against gay men who advertised for friends and partners in the underground magazine International Times (IT). The prosecution of IT was based on the legal principle that certain forms of ‘outrageously immoral’ conduct were in themselves corrupting of public morals, whether such conduct was legal or not. This principle placed male homosexuality in the legal category of ‘unlawful’ or ‘wrongful’ acts. In that sense, even after the decriminalization of homosexuality between men in 1967, it still had an uncertain legal status. Conspiracy to corrupt public morals cast a shadow over early attempts to create a gay civil society that was partly based on magazines and personal advertising. For conservative critics of the 1967 Act, conspiracy charges had the useful effect of curtailing public expressions of homosexuality.     

Sex, Age, and the Implementation of the Motor Voter Act: The 1996 Presidential Election

Objective . Among the existing studies of political participation, few discuss differences between men and women. Of those published, most have focused upon substantive policy preferences, perhaps noting women's newly dominant electoral presence but not probing its characteristics or limits. In this analysis we build on the work of Schlozman, Burns, and Verba (1994) by examining the compound effects of closing dates, state National Voter Registration Act implementation delay, and age upon women and men. Methods . Using the 1996 Current Population Survey Voter Supplement we compare the impact of legal obstacles among different age groups of men and women in the 1996 presidential election. Results . We find that legal restrictions do have a different impact on men and women, especially the youngest and oldest members of the latter group. Conclusions . The most significant implication of our work is that policy efforts aimed at further reducing legal barriers to political participation may facilitate women's growing electoral dominance.     

The influence of patriarchal ideology on outcomes of legal decisions involving woman battering cases: an analysis of five historical eras

Numerous qualitative analyses suggest that our legal system has been dominated by a patriarchal ideology that has affected judges’ legal decisions on cases pertaining to woman battering. To provide a quantitative test, we analyzed legal opinions from five historical eras to determine if the number of indicators of patriarchal ideology has changed over time. We also performed logistic regression analyses to determine whether these indicators are actually associated with case outcomes. Consistent with our hypotheses, in the most recent era (a) there has been a decrease in two of the indicators of patriarchal ideology (judges are less likely to assume that the woman was the instigator and they are less likely to make internal attributions to the woman), (b) the probability of battered women winning these cases has increased, and (c) the best predictor of case outcome is the extent to which the judge believes the woman was the instigator. However, we also obtained evidence that the drawbacks of patriarchal ideology may have affected some men, as well as women, in a negative way.     

The destruction of liberty in French Guiana: law,identity and the meaning of legal space, 1794–1830

Abstract

This article examines the colonial legal culture of French Guiana from 1794 to 1830 during a period marked by dramatic historical rupture; slaves in the colony who were liberated by decree of the French legislature in 1794 were returned to slavery under Napoleon. People who managed to remain free in the nineteenth century endured humiliating legal handicaps as well as challenges to their free status. In Guiana during this period, a person's access to the ‘rights of man and citizen’ depended on intricate and ultimately fragile legal structures. The perils besetting Guiana's freed people during and after the French Revolution often arose from the highly adjustable character of legal space – the legal status of imperial territory in relation to domestic soil. This article draws on archival materials including notarial documents and trial records to reconstruct the role of law and legal discourse in mediating everyday life, familial relationships and social encounters on the French colonial frontier.     

Using case study in library research

An examination of the case study approach which combines conceptual clarification with a pragmatic discussion of technique. The author sees the emergence of the case study as a consequence of the difficulties of applying the methodology of the sciences to problems ‘in which human behaviour, action or intention play a large part’. History, ethnography and particularly educational research are shown to offer models and insights into the case study tradition. The author has recently embarked upon a project which uses multi-site case studies to examine sixth formers' capacity for independent, library-based work, and he uses this as a framework for discussion of the questions to be considered by those contemplating research of this kind. He considers three main sources of information (interviews, documents and observation), their integration into case records; and narrative, vignette and analysis as alternative methods of reporting. He draws attention to the agonies of ‘writing-up’, and sees it as crucial to find forms of presentation conducive to a critical reaction on the part of the reader ‘rather than a willing suspension of disbelief’.     

Boots,material culture and Georgian masculinities

Writings on footwear tend to emphasize a fundamental division between those made for men and women: men’s are plain, sturdy and functional, whereas women’s are decorative, flimsy and impractical. Of all male footwear, boots are typically the plainest, sturdiest and most functional of all. In the eighteenth century they were emphatically outdoor wear, and scholars have noted their rustic and unrefined image. This article re-evaluates the elite male boot of the long eighteenth century in Britain, emphasizing its complex symbolic associations and its significance for the gendered lives of men. Boots were associated with equestrianism, social status and the military, and therefore were key markers of gender, class and national identities. Furthermore, the article considers boots as material objects, and what this tells us about their use and the impact that they had upon the bodies of their wearers. Based on research in three key shoe archives, this study uses boots to think about Georgian notions of masculinity, the body and the self.     

Toward an Empirical Case Definition of CFS

Abstract

The current case definition of chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) was developed by consensus rather than empirical methods. From a practice point of view, if the case definition is not empirically-based, it is possible that some individuals with this illness might not be diagnosed, and others who do not have the disorder might be diagnosed. In the present study, 114 individuals with CFS were provided a theoretically driven questionnaire that featured neuropsychiatric, vascular, inflammatory, muscle/joint, infectious, and other symptoms. When symptoms using this classification were factor analyzed, a more interpretable factor structure was identified than when using symptoms from traditional case definition criteria. Factor scores from the new classification system were cluster analyzed, and four types of patient groups were identified. The field of CFS studies needs to be grounded in empirical methods for determining a case definition versus more consensus-based efforts. Such efforts will ultimately help social service providers better diagnose and provide services to those with this chronic illness.     

EQUALITY BEFORE THE LAW: THE LIMITS OF LEGAL AID AND THE COST OF SOCIAL JUSTICE

The High Court decision in the Dietrich case highlighted the perilous state of legal aid in Australia when it instructed judges to refuse to hear criminal trials when a person has no legal counsel due to inability to pay and has been denied legal aid. The decision of the High Court places pressure on the Federal Government to resolve the situation by legislating a guaranteed right of legal representation. This article discusses the inadequacies of the legal system by examining the implications of the Dietrich case. It is argued that recent government reports only provide a piecemeal approach to improving access to justice and what is needed is wider systemic change in the form of universal legal insurance. Only in this way can citizenship rights he reasserted to ensure social justice.     

论我国企业立法中的法定化原则及其现实意义

在市场经济条件下 ,基于交易秩序和交易安全的考虑 ,有对我国当代立法中的法定化原则加以深入探讨的必要。企业立法中的强行性规定 ,就是法定化原则 ,其适用范围涵盖了企业类型、企业结构和企业行为等方面的内容。企业类型的法定化有利于建立起一个平等的市场交易平台 ,是市场主体的对话基础 ,便于在交易的过程形成普遍性的信赖 ;企业类型之间的本质性差别在于各种类型之间运行机制的不同 ,而运行机制的载体则表现为各企业类型之间的结构有所不同 ,对此权威性的判别有赖于企业法的依法确定 ;企业行为的法定化问题 ,囊括了企业行为的实体要件法定化和程序法定化两方面内容。最后 ,企业立法中的法定化原则对中国独立企业制度的形成具有重要的促进作用和现实意义 ,主要表现在两个方面 :其一 ,它是消除我国企业身份不平等规定的根本途径 ;其二 ,它有利于竞争性市场经济机制在我国的最终形成     

法律规范与法律规则--凯尔森与哈特的法律概念之比较

凯尔森和哈特对法律的概念有不同理解,凯尔森将规范作为法律的上位概念,而哈特则将规则作为法律的上位概念,法律规范和法律规则分别是他们认识法律的基本概念。凯尔森通过规范的观念强调了法律作为一个独立的逻辑体系的存在,奠定了法律科学独立的基础;哈特则通过规则的观念强调了法律同现实生活的密切联系,使法哲学在西方学术界重新恢复了活力。通过法律规范和法律规则的概念分析,对两位分析法学名家的理论可以有进一步的理解。     

The Size of the Homeless Men Population of Sydney

An attempt is made to determine the size of the population which uses the facilities for homeless men in Sydney. The distribution in age groupings of homeless men in Sydney is shown to be quite different from that of the general male population of New South Wales, and the extreme mobility of members of this population is again noted.     

Hoops Group: Group Work with Young "Street" Men

This paper presents the "hoops group," a basketball group for young "street" men. The purpose of this presentation is: (1) to further the discussion of services developed for group empowerment for homeless persons, (2) to present a case example of services to this population, and (3) to further the conceptualization using McGrath's (1991) construct of group functions. This article maintains that groups developed around activities in which individuals feel competence (in this case, playing basketball) are ideal in developing a collective identity and facilitating therapeutic gains.     

The Effects of Candidate Gender on Campaign Spending in State Legislative Elections*

Objective. This article will investigate whether candidate gender affects levels of campaign spending in state legislative elections. Methods. The analysis compares men and women candidates running for the state legislature in 20 states over two election cycles. By controlling for a range of contextual factors, the analysis isolates the independent influence of candidate gender. Results. The findings demonstrate that women and men spend similar levels of campaign funding in running for the state legislature. Running as incumbents, challengers, or open‐seat candidates, women are not at a financial disadvantage relative to similarly situated men candidates in the general election. Conclusions. Although women may suffer difficulties at other parts of the electoral process, women are not at a disadvantage relative to men in how much money their campaigns ultimately allocate for the purposes of gaining voter support.     

Gender and insult in an Italian city: Bologna in the later Middle Ages

There are few studies of insult in later medieval Italy. This article aims not only to fill that gap, but also to show the value of applying one branch of modern linguistics to the evidence for medieval insult. The overall aim is to study the particularly gendered aspects of insult: what words and actions could men and women use against their own gender and against the other? The copious judicial archive of Bologna allows for extensive study of this phenomenon. The article falls into three parts: first, establishing the general pattern of insult; second, examining closely the strongest male term of insult; and finally investigating the practice of ‘doorscorning’, by which the doors of victims’ houses were defiled. To interpret the findings, methodological approaches are borrowed from anthropology, medieval legal theory and modern linguistics.