Symposium,Cannabis—Legal,Ethical, and Compliance Issues: Introduction

This introduction reviews six articles presented at the 2020 symposium, “Legal, Ethical, and Compliance Issues in Emerging Markets: Cannabis in the States.” Scholars from across the United States and Canada presented research using the lens of law and strategy, ethics, and compliance to focus on the U.S. cannabis industry. The articles are discussed within the framework of institutional voids common to emerging markets, which may include a lack of a fully developed regulatory system and issues related to financial markets. These institutional problems create complexity for consumers, producers, municipalities, and state governments in this industry, and make success for this market segment more challenging. The introduction contributes to the discussion by reviewing securities litigation involving the cannabis industry generally and specifically in light of some of the issues identified by authors in the special issue.     

The police,social services and psychiatry cooperation in Denmark—A new model of working practice between governmental sectors. A description of the concept,process, practice and experience

In 2004 a new model of working practice between three public sectors, the local Police Department, Social Services and Psychiatry/Mental Health Services (PSP) was introduced in the municipality of Frederiksberg, Denmark. The aim of this cooperation was to enhance support to vulnerable citizens, who do not belong solely to one of the three sectors and thereby often get lost in the system. The PSP cooperation was introduced to ensure that relevant information concerning vulnerable citizens was shared between the three sectors and to improve collaboration between the sectors involved in order to provide the needed support to the individual citizen. Due to the success of the PSP cooperation in Frederiksberg, the PSP model was implemented by law in Denmark in 2009.In order to evaluate the model, a qualitative study based on structured interviews, focus group discussions and observations, was performed in four selected municipalities in Denmark: Frederiksberg, Odense, Amager and Esbjerg. The evaluation was undertaken by the Danish National Centre for Social Research.It is concluded that the PSP cooperation draws attention to marginalized groups of citizens and helps to prevent social downfall and crime. Participants of the PSP cooperations further highlight positive changes in the cooperation between the involved sectors, which is thought to further improve the support to vulnerable citizens and thereby enhance both prevention and follow up of cases. Furthermore, the recommendations drawn from the evaluation are to adapt PSP cooperations to local conditions, avoid unnecessary red-tape, keep a constant focus on citizens' ethics, as well as involve the frontline workers in the individual sectors, i.e. those who are actually in contact with marginalized citizens.     

Financial Institutions between Effectiveness and Legitimacy – A Legal Analysis of the World Bank,Global Environment Facility and Prototype Carbon Fund

Environmental financing is one of the crucial issues of international environmental law and its implementation. From an environmental perspective a prerequisite for success is that financial resources are used in an environmentally effective way. Whether the World Bank, the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and the Prototype Carbon Fund (PCF) can be perceived as effective environmental actors has to be measured by their objectives, their potential to promote accepted environmental standards and their relevant funding practices. After significant improvements of their environmental policies, the World Bank must be considered the most important institution for environmental financing due to its involvement in environmental trust funds but also in regard to its regular lending practices. The GEF remains exceptional due to its institutional structure and scope, whereas the PCF is an example of public–private partnerships that might be a model for future financing via trust funds. Since acceptance of institutions can only be created if they are considered to be legitimate, legitimacy is closely tied to effectiveness. The main criteria for legitimacy are state consent and the equality of states as well as supplementary considerations such as transparency and public participation. From this perspective the World Bank, GEF and PCF structures of voting and participation have come a long way, and despite their particularities and deficiencies they reflect to a varying degree elements of legitimate decision making.     

Blockchain Matters—Lex Cryptographia and the Displacement of Legal Symbolics and Imaginaries

Law and Critique - This article focusses on the social and legal implications that blockchain technology brings about, not only due to its ideological framework, but also, and...     

A Conversation with Tibetans? Reconsidering the Relationship between Religious Beliefs and Secular Legal Discourse

Over cups of chai, a conversation between U.S. law professors and Tibetan exiles about the formation of a new democratic Tibetan government under the Dalai Lama goes awry. This article investigates why the misunderstandings occurred by presenting the context of the Tibetan and U. S. concepts of sacredness and secularity. The former Tibetan government and legal system are explained in some derail as well as the Tibetan wiew of the sacred and secular spheres in society. The deistic origins of the U.S. Constitution and the pervasive religious cosmology of the Framers are then described. These two similar positions are contrasted with the current modern and postmodern positions of an all-encompassing secular sphere that defines and contains religion. The author argues that sacred and secular have changed positions, with secularity now having an unmarked positive value and being viewed by U.S. law professors as a necessity for a democratic political and legal system. As the conversation with the Tibetans demonstrates, the richness and power of an integrated sacred perspective is difficult to comprehend from a hegemonic secular public space. Reformulating this inarticulate debate will be necessary for a coherent conversation to take place.     

The Fundamental Contradiction Redux? Liberty,Coercion, and American Legal Development

In Liberty and Coercion: The Paradox of American Government from the Founding to the Present, Gary Gerstle offers an ambitious account of American legal development from our nation's founding up to the present day. In many ways, Gerstle's account is in keeping with the long scholarly tradition of linking legal liberalism with changes in American law and politics. However, Liberty and Coercion also calls to mind critical legal scholarship, most notably Duncan Kennedy's “The Structure of Blackstone's Commentaries” and the idea of the fundamental contradiction. After reconstructing Kennedy's central claims, I highlight how they actually undermine Liberty and Coercion and jeopardize the larger legal liberal tradition.     

Deepwater Horizon: The Legal Fallout—The Framework for Liability,Fines, and Penalties for Oil Pollution

On April 20, 2010, an explosion occurred on the Deepwater Horizon offshore drilling unit resulting in the death of eleven workers, and subsequently a continuous and uncontrolled release of crude oil and natural gas from the wellhead for a total of eighty-six days. The Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA) provides a comprehensive liability and compensation scheme by creating strict liability for the responsible party of a vessel or facility from which the oil was released subject to statutory limitations, and very limited applicable defenses. The owner of the Deepwater Horizon and the operator of the Macondo well were designated responsible parties under OPA subjecting them to liability for removal costs and damages. In addition, the Clean Water Act imposes civil and administrative fines on a per-day-per-barrel basis without limitation. Other federal statutes which are used to impose criminal liability are the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, the Endangered Species Act, and the River and Harbors Act of 1899.     

The Future and Legal Education: Are Law Schools Failing and,If So,How?

In Failing Law Schools (2010), Brian Tamanaha recommends that law schools respond to the current economic crisis in the legal profession by reducing support for faculty research and developing two‐year degree programs. But these ideas respond only to a short‐term problem that will probably be solved by the closure of marginal institutions. The real challenge lies in the powerful long‐term trends that animate social change, particularly the shift to a knowledge‐based economy and the demand for social justice through expanded public services. These trends demand that law schools transform their educational programs to reflect the regulatory, transactional, and interdisciplinary nature of modern legal practice.     

Psychiatrists,criminals, and the law: Forensic psychiatry in Switzerland 1850–1950

Between 1880 and 1950, Swiss psychiatrists established themselves as experts in criminal courts. In this period, the judicial authorities required psychiatric testimonies in a rising number of cases. As a result, more offenders than ever before were declared mentally deficient and, eventually, sent to psychiatric asylums. Psychiatrists also enhanced their authority as experts at the political level. From the very beginning, they got involved in the preparatory works for a nationwide criminal code. In this article, I argue that these trends toward medicalization of crime were due to incremental processes, rather than spectacular institutional changes. In fact, Swiss psychiatrists gained recognition as experts due to their daily interactions with judges, public prosecutors, and legal counsels. At the same time, the spread of medical expertise had serious repercussions on psychiatric institutions. From 1942 onwards, asylums had to deal with a growing number of “criminal psychopaths,” which affected ward discipline and put psychiatry's therapeutic efficiency into question. The defensive way in which Swiss psychiatrists reacted to this predicament was crucial to the further development of forensic psychiatry. For the most part, it accounts for the subdiscipline's remarkable lack of specialization until the 1990s.     

Exploring Justitia Through Éowyn and Niobe: On Gender,Race and the Legal

The image of Lady Justice, a white woman, sometimes appearing with her eyes veiled and other times unveiled, at times bearing scales and/or a sword in her hands, still is a common and popular feature of legal culture in many parts of the world. This is an image of justice that is found everywhere, from courthouses to cartoons. However, one may ask: “Who is this woman?”; Is she really a worthy representative of justice?; Or even a commendable representative of women? Thus, in this article, it is proposed to question the image of Lady Justice and the interpretations that have been associated with it, as well as the standards of conduct required of, and imposed upon, women both inside and outside the legal profession. The article will consider a range of arguments related to such questions, particularly on the issues of gender and race, by using two female characters: Éowyn (from Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings) and Niobe (from the Wachowskis’s The Matrix). The two characters are women who have some significance in both plots. Through them, I will establish some similarities and differences with Justitia, namely the need to be disguised as men or embrace male attitudes (a similar process concerning women in the legal profession, for example); the use of weapons (specifically, the sword, and, hence, the necessary analysis of women as law breakers, in contradiction to the image of Justitia); and finally some key issues relating to the representation of women of colour.     

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder’s Traumatic Stressor Criterion: History, Controversy, and Clinical and Legal Implications

This paper discusses posttraumatic stress disorder’s (PTSD) traumatic stressor criterion (Criterion A) in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV). The history of the stressor criterion is detailed, including how it has changed over time in successive versions of the DSM. We discuss controversy over the stressor criterion, regarding arguments about whether it is too conservative or too liberal. Studies comparing Criterion A and non-Criterion A events in their association with PTSD are discussed, including the finding across studies that non-Criterion A events are just as (or more) likely to result in PTSD. Potential explanations to account for this finding are discussed, including presentation of solutions to Criterion A’s limitations. Finally, legal implications for Criterion A in evaluating individuals presenting with PTSD in civil and criminal cases are discussed.     

Law’s Determinability: Indeterminacy,Interpretative Authority,and the International Legal System

Netherlands International Law Review - Authority claims remain rooted in the antecedent existence of a degree of indeterminacy, in particular in the international legal system, in which a lack of...     

Brazilian Adolescents’ Just World Beliefs and Its Relationships with School Fairness,Student Conduct,and Legal Authorities

Prior research has demonstrated that adolescence is a sensitive period to develop their belief in a just world (BJW), both general and personal. Research has found significant relationships between BJW, perceptions of school fairness, student conduct, and perceptions of legal authorities. However, no research has combined these constructs in one model to get a broader picture of how adolescents construct their worldview of fairness and how this influences their compliance with authorities. This study analyzed 475 Brazilian adolescents across three schools. A partially mediated and a mediated model were tested to determine if students’ BJW relate directly or indirectly to student conduct and perceptions of legal authorities through school fairness. The partially mediated model best fit the data. Personal BJW predicted students’ perceptions of the school fairness, which predicted student conduct. General BJW and school fairness predicted adolescents’ perceptions of legal authorities. Perceptions of school fairness are influenced by Personal BJW and are predictive of students’ conduct and opinions of legal authorities. By analyzing multiple constructs simultaneously, this study provides a picture of how these overlapping conceptualizations of justice interact. Students who do not believe their school is fair are less likely to respect and abide by the rules and are more likely to also expect unfair treatment from law enforcement and judicial officials. This study points to the importance of students’ perceptions of justice at school and highlights the far-reaching implications of students who do not perceive or expect justice in their lives.     

“There Is Something in That Water”: Race,Nationalism, and Legal Violence

This article analyzes the issue of water contamination in Kashechewan, Ontario, Canada. Through an inquiry into the way in which water contamination in one Aboriginal community was handled by the local and federal governments, this article examines processes of ongoing colonialism in Canada. Drawing on an array of sources, this article explores three features pertinent to this water crisis: historical forms of legal violence, symbolic forms of representation concerning the relationship between nationalism and the governance of race in liberal democracies, and the importance of the case study approach when examining legalized forms of violence. By examining connections between race, nationalism, and legal violence, this article explores the ways in which biopolitical forms of racial governance require an analysis that links legal violence and structural violence to historical and symbolic forms of representation.