Protecting Rural Church-Going Immigrant Women from Family Violence

Rural Latino immigrant women at risk of family violence may perceive churches as their only source of help. However, immigrant church leaders may be poorly equipped to address family violence in their congregations. This article describes a project designed to stimulate and support appropriate responses to family violence by rural immigrant churches, including those identified with conservative theological views on women. The primary goal was to provide rural Latino church leaders with culturally sensitive materials and resources they were willing to use with their congregations. We collaborated with local service providers who assisted in recruiting the church leaders for the pastors’ workshops where the resource materials were presented. Survey data indicated most of the pastors were receptive to the content and planned to incorporate it into their church work. Suggestions are made for future research on this culturally sensitive approach to addressing family violence in the immigrant community.     

Legal education in Scotland: update from the Higher Education Academy

Law students’ future clients and employers, and the broader community, all deserve graduates to be equipped with not only substantive legal knowledge, but also a range of skills and practical knowledge. However, most law schools face resource pressures that mean that traditional skills development methodologies (which are often resource intensive) can only be used judiciously. In this resource-poor environment, skills development methodologies which incorporate new technologies can be one way to assist law students to develop the professional skills they require. Online learning tools have the potential to be resource friendly, and law schools may therefore be able to utilise them to ensure that maximum learning potential is achieved from the limited resources available. Considering an online or blended skills development framework is also supported by evidence that new technology learning tools can usefully contribute to skills development. In this article the potential for online learning to replicate aspects of an apprenticeship model of learning is explored, as a means of explaining this contribution. This analysis is intended to facilitate consideration of a broad panoply of learning tools for skills development, and inform educators considering adding a new technology component to student skills development.     

The identification of a US serviceman recovered from the Holy Loch, Scotland.

During February and March 2000, human remains were recovered from the Holy Loch, Scotland. Police enquiries identified 13 males that had gone missing, presumed drowned in the Holy Loch or the adjoining lochs, over the previous 35 years. Osteological examination of the remains established they were from a male, aged between 15 and 23 and 168-174 cm tall. This information eliminated ten of the known missing persons. DNA profiles, both STR and mitochondrial were generated from the remains and compared to the profiles generated from relatives of the missing men. A positive match between the unidentified individual and one of the maternal relatives identified the remains as belonging to a US serviceman who had gone missing 35 years ago. The successful identification led to the repatriation of the serviceman's remains.     

Teaching law in Scotland

ABSTRACT

The theory of threshold concepts has become a popular way to describe the difficulties students face when trying to grasp fundamental ideas in a discipline. In law authors have suggested a range of concepts as thresholds. However these suggestions conflict with each other, and have not emphasised the way in which students repeatedly encounter such thresholds. Using variation theory and the concept of knowledge capability this article suggests that the Threshold Capability Integrated Theoretical Framework may be a way to resolve those differences and to highlight the ongoing nature of liminality in becoming a professional. Students may grasp initial threshold concepts early in a degree or subject, develop the ability to manipulate and use them in a variety of settings towards the end of the degree, and develop a lifelong professional ability to use them in diverse settings after graduation. Law students, lawyers and indeed law teachers may be best seen as in a constant state of learning. The uncertainty that goes with that learning is to be embraced, and encouraged as part of the way we teach law.     

Protecting the planet: a proposal for a law of ecocide

A wide range of actions imperil the planet and threaten the future of humanity and other species. This essay notes some examples of crimes and harms damaging to the environment and human and non-human species as well as various forms of response that have called for more effective and appropriate models of justice and law than currently prevail. This leads to a discussion of several suggestions regarding the development and expression of an earth jurisprudence and to the history of a proposal that “ecocide” be recognised internationally as a crime. Analysis of documentary sources traces this idea from debates about the concept of genocide to consideration by United Nations officials as to how crimes against the environment might be defined, and shows how near such a proposal has previously come to acceptance and enactment. The article concludes with an argument for supporting a law of ecocide as the 5th Crime against Peace.     

论农村流动妇女的权利保护

经济体制改革的深入,为广大农村妇女提供了新的经济机会和就业空间,基于各种原因,参加人口流动,成为她们解决自身现有危机的手段。据统计,在持续20年的民工潮中,离乡外出参加异地务农、异地务工和异地经商的农村妇女,已达到农民工总数的1/3。在社会支持与法律保护水平滞后的不和谐社会环境中,她们处于无序的流动状态,受到身份和性别的双重歧视,权益难以保障;而农村流动妇女在为我国经济发展贡献力量的同时,这一群体本身也成为影响社会和谐的一个重要因素。一、农村流动妇女的权利现状分析在我国现行法律体系中,通过设置《劳动法》、《妇女权…     

Plastic bag asphyxia in southeast Scotland

Death resulting from plastic bag asphyxia has been recognized for >40 years, but relatively little is known about either its epidemiology or its pathophysiology. Over 15 years (1984-1998), 30 deaths were attributed to plastic bag asphyxia among the 14,560 autopsies performed in the Forensic Medicine Unit in Edinburgh. These 30 deaths involved 20 male and 10 female subjects, with an age range of 13 to 81 years. Eleven had some alcohol measurable in the blood, with four having levels >80 mg/dl. Only one individual appeared to have ingested a drug overdose, but inhaled substances within the plastic bag may have contributed to death in five cases. The absence of childhood accidental deaths may reflect successful preventive measures. The 3 accidental deaths involved adults (including 2 who died of autoerotic asphyxia), and the remaining deaths were 27 suicides. Of those who committed suicide, most (59%) had chronic psychiatric illness rather than chronic debilitating or terminal physical illness. In contrast with reports from the United States, publicity associated with "self-deliverance" did not result in an increased number of deaths from plastic bag asphyxia (4 deaths in this series). Analysis of the circumstances of all the deaths revealed them to be difficult to predict and hence prevent.     

Protecting Medicare: the best defense is a good offense

Traditional Medicare is being threatened from two political directions. The current Republican coalition, on the right, simply dislikes social insurance in principle. It seeks privatization for its own sake. Another perspective, centrist and well established among political and economic elites, worries that the program is "unaffordable," whatever its basic merits. Defenders of traditional Medicare need to address both threats by explaining why the budgetary fears are misconceived and why privatization is simply a bad idea. In order to do this, they need to take the budgetary high ground, argue more strenuously for short-term cost controls, and criticize the extra spending that the Bush administration has used to encourage private plans within Medicare. Defenders of social insurance should also seek good policy and political allies by proposing that Medicare's network of providers, prices, and administration be made available to employers (and other pools) in much the way that self-insured groups currently rent networks from private insurers.     

Protecting Medicare services: trials of a peer review scheme

The Professional Services Review Scheme, established in 1994 under Pt VAA of the Health Insurance Act 1973 (Cth), is a unique attempt to apply peer standards to review of Medicare services. This article examines the evolution of the scheme in the light of extensive litigation.     

Black and Blue Bloods: Protecting Police Officer Families from Domestic Violence

Officer‐involved domestic violence (OIDV) is a national problem, with police officer families having higher rates of domestic violence than non–police officer families. OIDV is also an underresearched problem with few studies or proposed solutions. Many victims of OIDV do not report their abuse precisely because their abuser is a police officer, whom they fear is in a unique position to protect him/herself from any legal consequences. Often, OIDV complaints are not investigated properly in a nonbiased manner. While a handful of police agencies around the country have developed specific policies and procedures to deal with OIDV, Washington State has enacted legislation that requires its police agencies to adopt OIDV‐specific policies. The International Associations of Chiefs of Police (IACP), an organization that addresses various issues confronting law enforcement, has also developed a model policy on OIDV. This Note proposes that, in light of the Washington legislation and the model policy proposed by the IACP, each state should enact a statute that requires its police agencies to develop policies on OIDV. This Note also outlines a specific set of procedures that such statutes should, at a minimum, require its police agencies to adopt, ranging from educating police officers on domestic violence to developing guidelines on responding to and investigating OIDV complaints.     

Pilot Study of a Group-Based Psychosocial Trauma Recovery Program in Secure Accommodation in Scotland

The current study is the first to implement and evaluate a group-based trauma-specific program for adolescents in a secure accommodation facility in Scotland. A randomized control and qualitative pilot study compared an intervention group (n = 10), who received Teaching Recovery Techniques, to a waitlist control group (n = 7). Measures included subjective units of disturbance (SUDs), standardized trauma symptom questionnaires, and analysis of behavior monitoring logs. Adolescent interviews (n = 10) and a presenter focus group (n = 4) assessed program experience and views on future development. Sessions were videoed and analyzed for program adherence. Analysis involved MANOVA, and a quasi-qualitative thematic approach for participant views. Adolescents reported high SUDs and a range of trauma symptoms. A large effect size was found for reduced SUDs (d = 1.10) and positive trends were identified for symptoms and behavior change in the intervention group. Program adaptations included smaller groups, the use of visual materials and liaison with care staff to facilitate generalization. Recommendations are made for program development and large scale evaluation.     

Critical Reflections on the Proposal for a Mediation Act for Scotland

This article critically analyses the recent proposal to introduce a Mediation (Scotland) Bill. The proposed Bill aims to introduce a novel process of court-initiated mediation that will oblige litigating parties to attend a mandatory Mediation Information Session. Adopting a comparative approach with the English and Irish civil justice systems, this article analyses the key elements of the proposed Bill and makes proposals to improve it.     

Protecting Free Speech and Academic Freedom in Universities

Restrictions on speaking events in universities have been created both by recent student‐led efforts at ‘no‐platforming’ and by Part 5 of the Counter‐terrorism and Security Act 2015 which placed aspects of the government's Prevent strategy on a statutory basis. The statutory Prevent duty in universities includes, under the accompanying Guidance, curbing or monitoring events that could have an impact in drawing persons into terrorism. This article places the combined impact of Part 5 and student‐led curbs on campus speech in context by juxtaposing pre‐existing restrictions with the various free speech duties of universities. Focusing on speaking events, it evaluates the resulting state of free speech and academic freedom in universities. It finds potential violations of established free speech norms due to the impact of pre‐emptive strikes against some campus‐linked speech articulating non‐mainstream viewpoints. But it also argues that not all such speech has a strong foundation within such norms.