Legal Education Beyond the Academy: The Neoliberal Reorientation of Public Legal Education

Law and Critique - In order to re-make the world in its own image, neoliberal expansionism is predicated on the dominance of a particular regime of reason. The dominance of economic-juridical...     

Criminal justice faculty and criminal justice students: A case for the missing data

This article reviews the most current criminal justice education research. It examines the interrelationship between the work of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences, the Joint Commission on Criminology and Criminal Justice Education and Standards, and the National Advisory Commission on Higher Education for Police, and describes and compares some of their more important findings. Discussed are types of criminal justice programs; characteristics of criminal justice faculty, particularly in terms of earned academic degrees; agency work experience; commitment to research and teaching; types of criminal justice curricula, as typified by certain educational philosophies; and criminal justice students. Although this article notes several areas with which future research might become fruitfully involved, the area in need of most immediate attention, and the area that current research has all but ignored, is the criminal justice student.     

Restorative justice: the indigenous justice system

Dramatically different beliefs about justice will produce dramatically different methods for achieving justice. The beliefs underlying the traditional Indigenous restorative justice systems, systems that dramatically differ from the European-based system practiced in the USA are presented. The discussion highlights the legacy of colonialism for tribal communities and the resilience and creative resistance that have continued to characterize the spirit and ingenuity of Indigenous peoples.     

Public investment in private problems: legal aid and the family justice system

This paper examines findings from the Legal Aid Board Research Unit's Case Profiling Study in the light of the current reform programmes for both legal aid and family law. The findings relate to over 650 legally aided family cases including divorce, separation, ancillary relief and Children Act 1989 applications. The main aim of the study was to gain a better understanding of what is currently funded by the legal aid fund. Costs have been related to stages of cases and to the strategies employed by solicitors. Finally, I comment on the future role of legal aid in family law, suggesting that, to a large extent, public investment will be maintained. Remuneration of service providers will evolve as systems of contracting are introduced in January 2000. There will be continued emphasis on family mediation as an alternative method of dispute resolution. However, cases involving issues relating to children and their welfare will remain within the scope of public support. Domestic violence and other emergency issues will also merit high priority. Although there will be extensive changes in other areas of legal aid, family law appears to remain relatively unscathed.     

加拿大公众法律教育研究

加拿大公众法律教育，实际上类似我国的普法宣传或者法制宣传教育。笔者于2010年3月至2010年9月，作为中加访问学者交换项目的访问学者，获得加拿大政府资助，到加拿大阿尔伯塔大学，就公众法律教育专题，进行了为期半年的学术研究及学术交流。在加期间，笔者多次访问有关政府机构和从事公众法律教育的民间组织，并对专门从事公众法律教育的民间组织阿尔伯塔法律资源中心进行了较长一个时期的个案观察。     

Juvenile justice: a basic framework for the implementation of a functional juvenile justice system

The provision of appeal in arbitration law is a place where the judicial intervention can take place. One of the reasons many parties choose arbitration over litigation is the finality of the arbitral award even though a trial court may be more likely to deliver a legally correct result. The scope of appeal to the court in matters relating to arbitration is made very much limited by the statute in India. But despite several constraints and restrictions imposed by the legislature, this paper argues, the role of the judiciary still vastly remains interventionist in nature in some form or the other which is unacceptable.     

Virtual reality: a use case for criminal justice practice

ABSTRACT

In recent years, virtual reality (VR) technology has convincingly demonstrated its potential for assessment, training, rehabilitation and treatment purposes in a variety of domains, including (mental) healthcare and education. This paper explores the possibilities for VR application within criminal justice practice. Criminological literature and literature of related disciplines on VR applications were reviewed with a special focus on risk assessment, correctional rehabilitation, and reintegration. We also devoted attention to the VR-based treatment of anxiety-related disorders among victims of crime. Literature shows that VR can provide safe learning environments that would otherwise involve risk, generate ethical and ecologically valid virtual alternatives for which real-life situations would be unethical to use, and develop environments that are impossible to create in the real life. These unique characteristics make VR a promising tool to expand the current toolbox of risk assessment instruments, and correctional rehabilitation and reintegration programs in important ways. Before implementing VR in criminal justice practice, an elementary understanding of both the advantages and disadvantages of VR technology is desirable but given a longstanding and effective VR tradition in other domains, the future of VR in criminal justice practice is bright.     

再论我国公立高等学校之法律地位

我国公立高等学校的法律地位问题日益成为教育法制的焦点。本文认为,高等学校在不同方面具有不同的法律地位:其在行使法律、法规授予的行政管理等职权时,是行政主体;在接受有关行政主体监督、管理时,是行政相对人;在管理有关资产以及进行平权性质的活动时,是民事主体。此外,公立高校与其内部群体如教师、学生等存在多种复杂的法律关系。因此,我们把握公立高等学校的法律地位需要一种综合性的视角,并注意具体区分授权基础、行为类型和事务性质。     

Youth justice conferencing and indigenous over-representation in the Queensland juvenile justice system: a micro-simulation case study

Restorative justice conferencing for young offenders is firmly established in Australian juvenile justice, and legislated conferencing schemes are operating in all Australian states and territories. While there is some variation in the terms used to describe restorative justice conferences (e.g., family group conferencing, family conferencing, or youth justice conferencing), there is much more consistency in how the conferencing process is managed across Australian jurisdictions. In Queensland youth justice conferencing is a process that brings together an offender, the victim and their supporters to discuss the harm caused by the offending behaviour and provide the young person with an opportunity to take responsibility for his or her behaviour and make amends. This paper begins by briefly sketching the development of restorative justice conferencing in Queensland and describes the Juvenile Justice Simulation Model (JJSM), a micro-simulation model developed for criminal justice policy analysis in Queensland, Australia. We use this micro-simulation model to conduct an experimental exploration of the effects that youth justice conferencing has on system-wide outcomes for indigenous young people. The model simulates the impact of interventions up until 2011 on the number of finalised youth justice court appearances. Our results indicate that youth justice conferencing is unlikely to reduce the over-representation of indigenous young people in the juvenile justice system. The simulations demonstrated that, by the 2011, youth justice conferencing would result in a 12.5% decrease in finalised court appearances. Unfortunately, this decrease was more apparent for non-indigenous young people (13.7% decrease in court appearances) than for indigenous young people, who had a 10.5% decrease in court appearances. This differential impact of conferencing is due to the different court appearance profiles between indigenous and non-indigenous young offenders, with indigenous young people initiating offending at an earlier age and offending more frequently than non-indigenous young offenders.     

Critical justice consciousness: Social injustice and the criminal justice system

In this essay I examine the importance of social justice to my identity and the changing interpretation of my “justice consciousness” resulting from changes in my work life. Drawing on my academic experience as well as my experience as an attorney, I describe the meaning that social justice has for me. I also examine the connections that I see between social injustice and the operation of the critical justice system.     

The criminal justice system in a social justice society would look very different from the current system

I learned my most important lessons about criminal justice reform more than 30 years ago while working on what has become known as the Attica Prison rebellion. The Attica Prison rebellion took place in September 1971 in the maximum security prison in upstate New York. Led by prisoners with a broad social justice agenda, the prisoners’ demands were focused on basic human rights, including the right to organise, the right to be free from abuse from prison guards and the right to basic living conditions – health and sanitary conditions among others. The rebellion was ended when then Governor Nelson Rockefeller sent in state troopers to retake the prison by force, resulting in the death of 39 prisoners and prison guards. A political and legal struggle to defend prisoners charged in the uprising ensued, eventually resulting in the dismissal of the charges against the prisoners. In 2000, the people who had been prisoners at Attica during the 1971 rebellion were awarded an $8m settlement from the State of New York.     

中国租界的法学教育与中国法制现代化——以上海租界的东吴、震旦大学法学教育为例

中国租界的法学教育是中国现代法学教育中的一个组成部分.与中国其他地区的法学教育相比较,其比较重视比较法和外国法的教学、外籍教师的人数比较多、外语教学比较扎实、毕业生到国外深造的机会比较多等等.中国租界的法学教育在中国的法制现代化中发挥过积极作用,具体表现为:推进了中国法学教育与法学研究的现代化、中国立法的现代化、中国司法的现代化、现代法学国内外交流和世界反法西斯、国际法事业等.在中国租界的法学教育中,还有一些值得关注的问题,其中包括:西方教会的背景、租界的法制环境、20世纪30年代法学教育的变化和今天可以借鉴的问题等等.可以说,中国目前已不缺少法律人才,缺少的是卓越法律人才.在人才的培养中,可以从中国租界的法学教育中得到一些启示,最终是为了全面推进依法治国,为国家提供急需的卓越法律人才.     

论现代法学教育中的法律伦理教育

现代法律教育必同时是开发受教育者的道德情怀,砥砺受教育者的伦理能力的过程。法律伦理包括法律制度赖以形成的内在的伦理结构和法律制度得以良好运行的外在的法律职业行为伦理两部分。法律伦理教育的目的是培养受教育者的伦理问题意识和提升受教育者的伦理推理能力与伦理选择能力。这一目的的实现有赖于法学教育理念的变革和教育方式的更新。     

Building a post-war justice system in Afghanistan

This paper examines key dimensions of justice in post–war Afghanistan. These areshari'a(Islamic law), traditional institutions of informal justice (jirga), the Afghan interim legal framework, and human rights principles. It is argued that despite their apparent incompatibility, these various dimensions of justice could be integrated within a coherent framework of a new justice system in post–war Afghanistan –– a framework that would promote interaction between local institutions of informal justice and a district level court of justice, on the one hand, and between these two and a proposed human rights unit, on the other. On the basis of this analysis, an experimental model of a system of justice is proposed, which integrates local jirga and human rights units into the existing formal justice (based on shari'a and positive law) and law–enforcement institutions. This experimental model provides a multi–dimensional framework that both reflects the cultural and religious values of Afghan society, and at the same time, has the capacity to draw on human rights principles. It is maintained that the model has the capacity to deliver justice expeditiously and in cost–effective ways; it also has a strong potential to act as a channel of communication between ordinary people and a modern participatory state in post–war Afghanistan. However, in order to test the applicability of this model in the real world, it needs first to be thoroughly discussed among Afghan and international legal experts as well as among ordinary Afghan people, and then piloted in selected districts in Afghanistan.     

Towards a Comprehensive Legal Aid System in Bangladesh: The Need for Early Access to Legal Aid in Criminal Proceedings

The government-funded legal aid system in Bangladesh has been undergoing development. Bangladesh has guaranteed the right to legal assistance in different laws and particularly in the Legal Aid Services Act (LASA) with specific and greater detail. Moreover, it acceded to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) in 2000. In this context, the purpose of this article is to examine the current practice of the country with respect to the granting of early access to legal aid in criminal proceedings in light of international human rights standards. The article indicates that the prevailing problem of arbitrary arrest and pre-trial detention of those who are living in poverty is a matter of grave concern in Bangladesh. The author, therefore, recommends a mechanism to ensure early access to legal aid in the government-operated legal aid framework, as a fundamental aspect of a comprehensive system, for the protection of the interests of those who have been arrested or detained prior to being interviewed and formally charged of a criminal offence.     

International criminal justice: reflections on the past and the future

While Nuremberg constitutes a watershed in the evolution of international law with its establishment of the fundamental principle of individual criminal responsibility under international law it has not left much else by way of precedent for the subsequent international criminal tribunals. The adoption of UN Security Council Resolution 827 establishing the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, and Resolution 955 (1994) establishing the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, set the groundwork for a new model of hybrid tribunals, with the establishment of the Special Court for Sierra Leone in 2002, the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia in 2006, and the Special Tribunal for Lebanon in 2007. Perhaps one of the greatest legacies of these ad hoc and hybrid courts and tribunals has been paving the way for the establishment of a permanent international criminal court. However, they have also brought about the development of international criminal law through judicial interpretation, elaborating, inter alia, the elements of the crime of genocide as detailed in the 1948 Genocide Convention, the judicial recognition of the concept of joint criminal enterprise and the principle that national arrangements for amnesties in respect of international crimes are no bar to prosecution for such crimes at an international tribunal. In view of the completion strategies of the ad hoc Tribunals, as well as of the SCSL, this article delves into some of their legacies and outlines some of the difficulties and challenges they have faced, while identifying areas of best practice in order for the newly‐operational International Criminal Court to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past or even reinventing new wheels.