A JURY DEMONSTRATION

In teaching classes in The Legal Environment of Business or Introduction to Law about the role of the jury in the civil or criminal case, instructors may find it helpful to conduct a voir dire demonstration to introduce students to the mecahnics of the jury selection. Instructors may find the following jury demonstration useful in engaging the interest of the class and teaching them about this area of law.     

The Equal Pay Act: Using EEOC v. Verona Area School District in the Classroom

This article provides instructions for an engaging classroom activity when discussing the Equal Pay Act of 1963. Students are asked to consider how to approach pay decisions when hiring a new employee for their business. Issues arise when the new hire asks for a higher wage than a current employee of a different sex. Legal Environment of Business/Business Law, Business Communication, and Business Ethics are all tied together in a discussion of what it means to pay someone more or less money based on their sex.     

Book Reviews

Book review in this Article
Civil Liability for Transfrontier Pollution. Dutch Environmental Tort Law in International Cases in the Light of Community Law
The Legal Regime for Trans-boundary Water Pollution: Between Discretion and Constraint
A Law for the Environment/ Un droit pour ľenvironne-ment/Ein Recht für die Umwelt: Essays in honour of Wolfgang E. Burhenne
Environmental Diplomacy: Negotiating More Effective Global Agreements, Lawrence E. Susskind
Economic Incentives and Environmental Policies: Principles and Practice, J.B. Opschoor and R.K. Turner (Eds.)
Environmental Toxicology: Economics and Institutions, L. Bergman and DM. Pugh (Eds.)
Eco-Management and Eco-Auditing: Environmental Issues in Business, Linda Spedding, David Jones and Christopher Dering     

Reasons why law students should have access to learning law through a skills-based approach

The Legal Education and Training Review identified gaps in law students’ key skills development and this paper considers how skills training in three key areas of mooting, negotiation and client interviewing can be maximised so that law students have a sense of themselves as lawyer as well as law student from the beginning of their legal education. The research identifies numerous benefits to learning law through skills-based activities, but also discovers some possible apprehensions about participating from a student perspective. This paper draws on data taken from students who engaged in short-term optional courses in client interviewing, negotiation and/or mooting and considers the responses to a survey conducted prior to participation, a reflective survey post-completion and a focus group exercise. In total 64 students responded to the questionnaire. The research explores the expected and actual benefits of participating in the courses, discusses how these impact on students’ perceptions of their employability and the types of activities considered most valuable. The article considers how, in light of the research, experiential learning can be put to best use within the law curriculum.     

Examining the impact of mixing child molesters and rapists in group-based cognitive-behavioral treatment for sexual offenders

This study examines the relationship between recidivism rates, therapeutic climate, and composition of offenders in group-based cognitive-behavioral treatment (CBT) for sexual offenders. The Group Environment Scale (GES) is employed to measure social climate. The GES is administered to 73 male sexual offenders in groups of those who only victimized adults or children (five groups) or men who both victimized adults and those who victimized children (five groups). Group environment is not found to differ significantly as a function of group composition. Group member's ratings on the GES are in the medium to high range, indicating a generally positive group environment. Although the group environment overall does not differ between groups, groups do differ significantly in terms of expressiveness. There are no differences in recidivism rates between groups as a function of group composition. The results are discussed in the light of mixing child molesters and rapists in group-based CBT.     

论有限责任公司债权人权利的回归

The contingent governance theory based on state-contingent ownership has exerted an important impact on economic academia, and its application in the field of company law is also of significant value. The lack of internal restraint mechanism and public supervision of limited liability companies makes it feasible to implement contingent governance. Under the mechanism of contingent governance, creditors of a limited liability company may intervene in its governance. The right of intervention is mainly reflected in three aspects, i.e., (1) mandatory debt-for-equity swap, (2) obligation of the actual controller to creditors when the limited liability company is on the edge of insolvency, and (3) creditor’s right of objection with respect to the decision of corporate substantial business. Ding Guangyu, Ph.D in civil and commercial law, works in the Chinese Institute of Applied Jurisprudence of the Supreme Court of China. His publications include Introduction of Chinese Labor Law: Cases and Materials (China Legal Publishing House, 2008), Tracing the right of creditors in LLC: From the perspective of contingent governance theory (Studies in Law and Business, 2008.2), Judicial Discretion and the Rule (Legal Daily, 2007-4-20), Uniform of Legal Application (Legal Daily, 2006-12-9).     

Groups in Context: An Ontology of a Muslim Headscarf in a Nazareth Catholic School and a Sephardic Ultra‐Orthodox Student in Immanuel

Two separate Israeli Supreme Court cases permitted a Christian school in Nazareth to exclude a Muslim student who insisted on coming to school with her headscarf, and denied an Ashkenazi ultra‐Orthodox school in Immanuel permission to exclude Sephardic students. Intriguingly, the Israeli Supreme Court reached these apparently contradictory holdings using the same liberal ideals of equality and commonality. The article analyzes both holdings to show that the Court's resolutions cannot stand on their own terms. To reconcile these outcomes, we must locate the groups involved within the religious and ethnic power structure in Israel and determine the legal and social significance of defining the group as a minority or a majority. In general, we should be more tolerant of exclusionary measures practiced by a minority than those practiced by the majority. Ultimately, a constitutional evaluation committed to basic individual freedoms cannot refer to the individual without her or his group.     

Paradigm shift: motivations for qualified legal professionals to undertake academic study

This paper considers the factors that motivate qualified legal professionals to undertake a further legal academic programme of study. The paper analyses the findings of a recent study concerning a post-graduate research degree collaboration between Northumbria University (NU) and the Law Society of Ireland (LSI) whereby NU’s longstanding LLM Advanced Legal Practice (LLM ALP) has been offered in Ireland through the LSI (LLM ALP (Ire)). The initial offering of the LLM ALP (Ire) has attracted a significant amount of interest from the profession, prompting the authors to consider (i) the factors that motivate ‘time-poor’ professionals to pursue the academic study of law at the post-professional level and (ii) the potential that such a course of study might have to inform and enrich the students’ practice of law. The LLM ALP (Ire) has attracted a significant amount of more established practitioners, whereas those who generally enrol on the LLM ALP in England are at the early stages of their careers, either enrolled on the Legal Practice Course (LPC) or having only recently qualified. Hence this research is focused on a particular student profile of post-professionals with established careers in legal practice.     

Book Reviews

Books reviewed in this article:
Christoph Bail, Robert Falkner and Helen Marquard (eds), The Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety: Reconciling Trade in Biotechnology with Environment and Development?
Lyuba Zarsky (ed.) , Human Rights and the Environment, Conflicts and Norms in a Globalizing World
Eric Neumayer , Greening Trade and Investment: Environmental Protection without Protectionism
Rosalind Reeve , Policing International Trade in Endangered Species: The CITES Treaty and Compliance
Nicolas de Sadeleer , Environmental Principles: From Political Slogans to Legal Rules
Peter Ehlers, Elisabeth Mann-Borgese, Rüdiger Wolfrum, Cristina Hoß (eds), Marine Issues: From a Scientific, Political and Legal Perspective
Geir Honneland and Anne-Kristin Jorgensen , Implementing International Environmental Agreements in Russia     

The importance of ethics in the law curriculum: essential or incidental?

Recently, the debate as to whether ethics should be a compulsory requirement of a law degree was refuelled when the English and Welsh Legal Education Training Review (LETR) recommended that professional ethics should be primarily addressed in vocational Legal Services and Education Training programmes and that learning outcomes in the academic curriculum should include reference to morality and the law, the values supporting the legal system and their connection to the role of lawyers. This debate is also occurring in other jurisdictions. In Australia the debate is focused on the proposal that ethics be removed as a compulsory subject in the law degree. This proposal has raised a concern that law students will be denied the opportunity to develop as ethically competent lawyers. This paper argues for the continuation of ethics as a core component of a law degree and evidences the model used for the teaching of ethics in the law degree at the University of Technology Sydney in support of our argument. The background to the model is examined to highlight the significance of student feedback and ongoing curriculum review, including the alignment of parallel pedagogical factors. This model serves as an example of not only why ethics should be core to a law degree but, in order to provide graduates who are ethical and reflective practitioners, why ethics should be pervasively taught throughout the degree and supported by an introductory and capstone presence.     

Computer-Aided Instruction in Law: Theories, Techniques, and Trepidations

Legal education is only beginning to make use of the technological capabilities of computers as a medium for instructional design. In this article the authors show the applicability of computer-assisted instruction to law through programmed instructional techniques. They trace the two decades of development of computer-assisted instruction (CAI) in law, the use and misuse of the computer's capabilities, the impact of CAI on law student attitudes and performance, and the positive student endorsement. They carefully analyze the computer's capacity for use in memory drills, tutorial sessions, and simulation exercises. They do not offer an unrestricted endorsement of the computer's capabilities but hope for the continuing development of CAI in the legal education process.     

农村环境保护法治建设的成就、问题和改进

文章总结了我国农村环境保护法治建设,分析了其存在的主要问题,提出了如下改进意见:明确农村环境保护法治建设的指导思想、基本理念和基本原则;建立健全农村环境保护监督管理体制,各级人民政府对所辖农村的环境质量负责,国家环境保护部是对全国农村环境保护实施统一监督管理的行政主管部门,发挥和依靠乡级人民政府和集镇管理委员会、村民委员会在农村环境保护方面的作用;合理确定农村环境保护法的适用范围和规制的主要领域;健全农村环境保护法律体系、法律制度和法律措施。     

There is no “I” in “a team of lawyers”: an evaluation of student perceptions of group assessment within legal higher education

ABSTRACT

This paper focuses on the use of group assessments within higher education (HE) as a form of summative assessment, and the experiences of students in relation to this assessment tool. Group assessment is becoming a very common feature of undergraduate HE courses, with an “explosion” of group assessment in more recent years. This paper chooses to focus on the use of group assessment within the discipline of law, specifically the use of summative group assessment within a law discipline at a Russell Group University. Although this paper follows numerous other studies and reviews of group work and group assessment, it has been noted that there remains a lack of qualitative studies on students’ perspectives on group assessment. This paper progresses the literature to date by collecting qualitative insights. In particular, the paper focuses on key aspects of student experience such as building group relationships, and the fear and uncertainty of being assessed as part of a group. Group assessment can be introduced readily by staff without always considering the complexity of group work and its related issues and this can potentially lead to negative student experiences. Therefore, this paper also aims to highlight the benefits to student experience of well-planned group assessment that is appropriately set.     

Restrictions on legal aid in family law cases in England and Wales: creating a necessary barrier to public funding or simply increasing the burden on the family courts?

The Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (LASPO) resulted in significant cuts to the availability and scope of legal aid in family law proceedings. Some four years after the cuts were implemented, there has been a great deal of research about their devastating impact on vulnerable groups and individuals. This paper considers the other victim of the cuts, the family court itself. It is currently bulging under pressure from both an increase in applicants who have been forced to represent themselves in family proceedings and also from a rise in applications for injunctions linked to domestic violence. This paper will draw on case law to demonstrate that the reforms implemented through LASPO have seemingly only succeeded in passing the burden from one publicly funded agency, the Legal Aid Agency, to another, HM Courts and Tribunals Service. The family court system is currently at breaking point and further government review is urgently needed if people are going to be able to continue to use the system effectively.     

Book Reviews

Books reviewed:
Barry Barton et al. (eds), Energy Security: Managing Risk in a Dynamic Legal and Regulatory Environment
Scott Barrett, Environment and Statecraft: The Strategy of Environmental Treaty-making
Malgosia Fitzmaurice and Milena Szuniewicz (eds), Exploitation of Natural Resources in the Twenty-First Century
Ved P. Nanda and George Pring, International Environmental Law and Policy for the Twenty-First Century
K. Bastmeijer, The Antarctic Environmental Protocol and its Domestic Legal Implementation
Kevin P. Gallagher and Jacob Werksman (eds), The Earthscan Reader on International Trade & Sustainable Development
Xue Hanqin, Transboundary Damage in International Law     

Book Reviews

Book review in this Article
Oppenheim's International Law, 9th edition, Sir Robert Jennings and Sir Arthur Watts (Eds.)
Precautionary Legal Duties and Principles of Modern International Environmental Law, Harald Hohmann
EC Treaty and Environmental Law, second edition, Ludwig Kramer
Joint Implementation to Curb Climate Change: Legal and Economic Aspects, O. Kuik, P. Peters and N. Schrijver, (Eds.)
Freedom of Access to Information on the Environment in the United Kingdom. A User's Guide to the Environmental Information Regulations and EU Directive 90/313     

Introduction

The Roberta Kevelson Seminar on Law and Semiotics is integrated in the regular program of a US Law School and student enrollment is honored with credit points. Hitherto, the study of Legal Semiotics has mainly been located outside the Law Schools in the US and the Faculties of Law in the EU. Two important questions within the more general theme of Legal Semiotics and Legal Education arose: (1) the program requirements in an education context, and (2) the attention and interests of the students. This IJSL issue offers essays presented during the Round Table which closed the Seminar, provides some experience-based suggestions for a Seminar program and discusses how to deal with the pragmatic attitude of law students. It interests how those topics relate to legal and semiotic literature and how they focus globally important viewpoints, as can be concluded in the example of the legal semiotics of family structures.     

Novel recovery methods for biological materials in cases of alleged sexual assault: A word of caution

Many believe that an increase in the public confidence in the investigation of sexual crimes, and in conviction rates, will lead to an increase in the reporting of these crimes. Consequently, Forensic Science Providers are continually striving to make improvements in evidence recovery and examination and the subsequent interpretation of evidence. One development is in methods that enable an individual to self-sample. However, in cases where a complainant has self-sampled, questions of when the samples were taken, how they were stored and so on, can be legitimately raised. Additionally the continuity and integrity of evidential samples may be questioned resulting in them not being acceptable to the courts and potential evidence could therefore be lost. There is a large emotional and psychological impact of sexual assault and rape and no complainant who reports a sexual assault and recovers material should have that evidence inadmissible to a court. Specialised units for victims of alleged sexual violence are available and offer far more than the recovery of evidential samples. This commentary on behalf of the Faculty of Forensic & Legal Medicine (FFLM) and the Association of Forensic Science Providers Body Fluid Forum (AFSP BFF) highlights the need for after care for the victims of sexual assault and why all evidence recovered in cases of alleged sexual assault and sexual violence should be obtained in line with best practice protocols.     

作为立法术语的“环境侵权”之辨析

我国现行立法主要使用“环境污染和其他公害”、“环境污染损害”或“环境污染危害”来表达或部分表达环境侵权的涵义，而民法学者则使用“环境污染损害赔偿”、“污染环境侵权”“污染环境的损害事实”和“污染环境致人损害”等相关术语。于是乎“环境侵害”、“环境侵权”、“环境损害（赔偿）”等概念成为一组话题相同、内容相关、客体相交（叠）、因果相联、混扰相“助”的环境法学科“御用”语词。对此，应首先以法律责任体系为基础，厘清环境法律责任、环境民事法律责任、环境侵权民事法律责任等术语间的相互关系，不能以笼统的“环境侵权”来混用“环境侵权行为”与“环境侵权责任”这两个术语，使用时应加以区分。将来的相关立法应以“环境侵权”为核心术语。