Court of Appeal considers burden of proof in breach of confidence cases

The Court of Appeal considered the burden of proof where a copyof a product was allegedly made in breach of confidence andfound that, because the trial judge had not misdirected himself,it was not for the Court of Appeal to look at whether therehad been copying.     

Cultural relativism and comparative criminology

The recent spate of comparative studies of crime is long overdue as a potential palliative to the traditional ethnocentrism of American criminology. But their comparative method is uncritically taken from two incompatible propositions derived from Durkheimian empiricism. As such, the generalizations about criminal behavior that these studies advance should be treated more with caution than optimism. This essay discusses the alleged advances over Durkheimian empiricism made by two distinct forms of cultural relativism. If what every man believes as a result of perception is indeed to be true for him; if, just as no one is to be a better judge of what another experiences, so no one is better entitled to consider what another thinks is true or false... then, my friend, where is the wisdom of Protagoras, to justify his setting up to teach others and to be handsomely paid for it? Socrates, in Plato'sTheaetetus     

Animal abuse and criminology: introduction to a special issue

I wish I had a penny or a cent or a peso for each of the many times in the past few years that I have listened in on a conversation or read something about human rights and animal rights and then been forced to think through to the variety of its possible conclusions what for three shipwrecked and hungry survivors in a lifeboat on the high seas is the proper thing to do about their thirst and imminent starvation. Suppose that the three survivors of this shipwreck are an adult human, the ship’s cabin boy and a dog. Suppose also that they are several days away from rescue and without hope of acquiring food or potable water from their salt-water environment. For purposes of survival in this dire situation, may one of the two humans kill and eat one of the other two survivors? If so, which one? To these two questions almost certainly the response by two of the shipwrecked survivors themselves, by would-be in-contact-radio-rescuers, by medical consultants, by theological experts and by the general public would be: “it’s alright to eat the dog”.     

A note on the facticity of animal trials in early modern Britain; or,the curious prosecution of farmer Carter’s dog for murder

For a century or so there has been a lively debate on the meaning of animal trials in early modern and medieval Europe. One unresolved issue in this debate is the geographical and jurisdictional incidence of animal trials, including their facticity in Britain. This essay explores some neglected evidence in this regard, namely, three British animal trials identified in E.P. Evans’ (1906/1987) authoritative text The Criminal Prosecution and Capital Punishment of Animals.     

Filing for corruption: Transparency, openness and record-keeping

The rhetoric of the new development agenda is shaped by democratisation,decentralisation and accountability. The intention is to reassert the role ofthe state but only within the context of involving and working for thepeople. Multilateral and bilateral donor statements are replete withreferences to openness, transparency, accountability and combatingcorruption. This article discusses the rhetoric of such language but then askshow they are to be implemented.What is at issue is that such terms are crucial development goals but,without greater attention to concrete outcomes and processes, may remainrhetoric.     

Universities and open innovation: the determinants of network centrality

The Journal of Technology Transfer - This paper addresses the ‘network’ and ‘open innovation’ paradigms by seeking to examine the factors associated with structural...     

Peter Singer's ``Heavy Petting' and the Politics of Animal Sexual Assault

This essay confronts PeterSinger's (2001a) controversial suggestion thathuman-animal sexual relations should betolerated if they do not involve cruelty, apseudo-liberal position contradicted by theauthor's recent testimony in favor of a Bill tocriminalise bestiality. Against Singer, thisarticle argues that human-animal sex is a harmthat is wrong for the same reasons as isinter-human assault – because it involvescoercion, produces pain and suffering, andviolates the rights of another being. Positively, however, Singer's text opens up fora much overdue discussion some difficultquestions about the politics of animal sexualassault.