Reliability of Sexually Violent Predator Civil Commitment Criteria in Florida

The present study investigated the reliability of Sexually Violent Predator (SVP) civil commitment criteria under Florida's Jimmy Ryce Act. The purpose of the study was to determine if, independently, 2 evaluators would reach the same conclusions about the same client (n = 295). According to civil commitment criteria outlined by the United States Supreme Court (Kansas v. Hendricks, 1997), SVPs must display a mental abnormality predisposing them to sexual violence and a likelihood of future sexual violence. The interrater reliability of 8 DSM-IV diagnoses applied by evaluators to determine whether a client has a "mental abnormality that predisposes him to sexual violence" was found to be poor to fair (kappa = .23 to . 70). The interrater reliability of risk assessment instruments used to determine "likelihood of reoffense" was good (ICC = .77 to .85). The recommendations made by evaluators regarding whether or not to refer a client for civil commitment demonstrated poor reliability (kappa = .54). Implications for practice and policy are explored.     

Sexually Violent Predator Evaluations: Empirical Evidence,Strategies for Professionals,and Research Directions

Several states have passed civil commitment laws that allow the precautionary detention of sex offenders who have completed their criminal sentences. Over 2,500 sex offenders have been committed across states with such statutes and several thousand more sex offenders have been evaluated. Most statutes call for an evaluation of risk by a mental health professional and, although each state statute is worded differently, three main elements common to sexually violent predator evaluations are used to guide evaluators: mental abnormality, volitional capacity, and likelihood of future sexual violence. The current article presents empirical evidence for the main tenants of these forensic evaluations, provides recommendations for evaluators in light of current limitations of evidence, and offers suggestions for future research in this area of forensic assessment.     

Examining the scope of questionable diagnostic reliability in Sexually Violent Predator (SVP) evaluations

Research has suggested questionable reliability of diagnosing mental abnormality during Sexually Violent Predator (SVP) evaluations, despite this being a necessary requirement for SVP commitment. Findings have been inconsistent across studies, and little is known about the extent of such trends across diagnoses and clinicians. The current study includes data from 375 sex offenders referred for evaluation for SVP commitment in New Jersey. Clinicians (n = 128) rendered a variety of diagnoses, most commonly Pedophilia. Results suggested questionable agreement across paraphilic and non-paraphilic diagnoses, although agreement was fair for diagnoses of Pedophilia. Further analyses of cases (n = 49) involving clinicians receiving a large number of referrals (n = 14) were generally consistent with these findings, with no outlier effect apparent. Findings suggest questionable diagnostic reliability to be a widespread issue in SVP evaluations, present across a variety of diagnoses and across the general body of clinicians involved in evaluations.     

构建以法律职业为目标导向的法律人才培养模式——中国法律教育改革与发展研究报告

改革开放30年来,在依法治国方略的推动下,我国逐步建立起布局、结构层次比较完整和发达的法律人才培养体系,为建设法治和繁荣法学做出了贡献。但目前仍存在着法律人才培养的层次和结构、数量和质量不能适应或满足政法队伍建设的实际要求,特别是管理体制混乱等诸多矛盾和迫切需要解决的问题。要深化法律教育体制改革,必须立足我国的历史和现实,借鉴发达国家法律人才培养经验,建立以法律职业为目标导向的法律教育管理体制和法律人才培养模式,即强化政法机关对法律教育的指导和管理职能;建立以五所政法大学和若干著名大学法学院为主干的国家级政法人才培养基地;建立学术型和职业型法律人才分类培养管理机制和基本统一的法律人才培养模式;建立二段式司法考试模式并完善考试通过之后的职业培训制度;优化全国法科学科专业布局。     

Jurisdictional Conflicts: A New Approach to the Development of the Legal Professions

This paper sketches a new theoretical approach to the study of professions and uses that approach to analyze differences that have emerged between the American and English legal professions since the late nineteenth century. Earlier studies have generally emphasized professional structure and organization while ignoring work and its control. I argue that control of work is central to professional development. Since work is central and since professions compete for it, interprofessional competition is the determining fact in the history of professions. This paper analyzes the work available to the legal profession, the numbers and types of legal personnel available to do that work, and the various competitors contesting it. Studying in detail complaints of unqualified practice in England (1870–1940) and two American states (1910–50), I locate the types of contested work and the competitors involved, using these to explain important aspects of the two legal prof essions today. Throughout, a variety of theoretical concepts are developed and applied to the particular case. One striking discovery is the contrast in competitors; American lawyers & rsquo;chief competitors were corporations, while British lawyers'chief competitor was the state. I close by evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of the particular methodology here used—the study of conflicts—and suggest alternative methods using the same theoretical framework.     

The Legal Characterization of the Armed Conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq: Implications for Protection

This article explores the implications for the protection of civilians and other vulnerable persons, of the requalification of a conflict downwards from international to non-international, focusing in particular on the changes in the characterization of the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq from 2001 and 2003 respectively.

Determining the legal character of an armed conflict is rooted in an inherently political interpretation of black letter treaty law. It is generally agreed that when the United States and its coalition allies entered the wars in Afghanistan in 2001, and Iraq in 2003, their operations in those countries were initially subject to the laws of international armed conflict. However the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has determined that the conflict in Afghanistan became noninternational with the establishment of the United States’ backed government of Hamid Karzai on 19 June 2002 and that the conflict in Iraq became non-international with the establishment of the Iraqi Interim Government on 28 June 2004. The basis for this requalification is Article 2 of the Geneva Conventions read in conjunction with an interpretation of the meaning of ‘state’ (and of its power to authorize a foreign intervention in its own territory) that is inherently, and possibly inevitably, political.

Changes in the legal characterization of a war have profound implications for the protection of both non-combatants and combatants under international humanitarian law, in particular for humanitarian access; for the protection of non-nationals from deportation; for the protection of detainees; for the conduct of hostilities; and for the protection of persons transferred into the hands of local authorities. The practical consequence of a requalification of an armed conflict downwards to non-international is a marked loss of protection for persons that were protected by the Geneva Conventions in the earlier stages of the conflict.

     

The Application of International Legal Norms Over Time: The Second Branch of Intertemporal Law

Intertemporal law governs the applicability of international legal norms ratione temporis. According to often used terminology, intertemporal law has two different branches. This article provides clarification of the so-called ‘second branch of intertemporal law’. It does so by refuting two commonly held assumptions. First, as established in section 2 of the article, the second branch of intertemporal law is not an exception to the first branch of that law. It cannot be, since both branches of intertemporal law centre on the same legal principle: an action or a factual state of affairs must be assessed in the light of the law which is contemporary with it. Secondly, as implicated by the line of reasoning in section 2, and further confirmed by the inferential evidence cited in section 3, the practical relevance of the second branch of intertemporal law is not confined to the application of the law on the acquisition to territory. It pertains to a more widely defined group of norms in international law.

     

打赢未来信息化战争,取得最大军事效益的法律途径 --论武装冲突法的艺术运用

纯军事手段的战争 ,是外行的战争。在军事斗争中自觉运用武装冲突法 ,把“斗法”和“斗兵”紧密地结合起来夺取战争的胜利 ,已经成为一项重要的现代战争指导艺术。法律战是打赢未来信息化战争 ,取得最大军事效益的重要法律途径 ,在未来作战中将发挥直接的战斗功能。我军要适应未来战争需要 ,必须在实战中学会娴熟运用武装冲突法 ,既严格遵守 ,又灵活实施 ,以最有利“保存自己 ,消灭敌人”的方式行使武装冲突法赋予的权力 ,保证自己军事上不吃亏、法律上站得住。进而以战争的合法性支撑战争的正义性 ,以法律支柱强化精神支柱 ,最大限度地赢得和巩固军心、民心 ,提升整体作战能力。     

Trademarks as Sources of Market Power: Legal and Historical Encounters

Although the history of trademarks is well catalogued in various review articles and books in different jurisdictions, one particular missing link is whether trademarks are sources of market power—from a historical perspectives. This article addresses exactly that question, and presents some of the legal encounters that support the historical narrative that trademarks are sources of market power, by examining selected trademark cases—centuries apart in England and the United States. The overall purpose of these discussions is aimed at situating the law and policy of trademarks in the antitrust regime when significant historical trademark cases are brought into the equation and whether a prediction can be made that trademarks are increasingly heading into a clash with the antitrust regime.     

投资连结保险:法律属性及与现行保险法的冲突

投资连结保险作为新型的人身保险产品,有别于传统保险,在法律属性上应将其定位为"保险+信托"。基于投资连结保险的独特性质,我国《保险法》不仅不能完全适用于投资连结保险,而且存在若干冲突情形。为避免投资连结保险法律适用的疑义,建议在《保险法》中增补若干例外规定来弥和冲突,或者设专章规定投资连结保险。     

“作为法律资源的天空”——天学视野下君权制约和秩序构建的法律意义

在天学的视野下,中国古人头顶的天空不仅成了“作为文化资源的天空”,而且更是成了“作为法律资源的天空”。古人通过对天象的细致观测,不仅从这个天空中获取了立法、司法等诸多具体的法律资源,更为重要的是,作为法律资源的天空在更深入的层次上表达了对于君主权力之制约和法律秩序之构建的重大法律意义。     

Deontic Logic as Logic of Legal Norms: Two Main Sources of Problems

Abstract .
The paper offers a critical survey of two main sorts of problems hindering the possibility of conceiving deontic logic as a suitable account of the logical behaviour of (sentences expressing) legal norms. The notion of "legal norm" is viewed as the main source of the first sort of problems: (a) the typological variety of legal norms requires an account both of the differing logical behaviour of (sentences expressing) differing legal norms, and of the relations which might hold amon them; (b) the ontologic, semantic, and epistemic features of legal norms shed doubt on the very attempt to figure out a logical analysis of (sentences expressing) legal norms. The notion of "systemic legal validity" is viewed as the main source of the second sort of problems: Deontic logic does not provide suitable logical tools to account for legal phenomena like enactment, derogation, and conflicts between legal norms which rely on systemic legal validity.