American Criminal Trial Films: An Overview of Their Development, 1930–2000

The history of American trial films – and I am speaking of trial films in general at the moment, not of the sub-division of criminal trial films – has been shaped both by changes in public attitudes toward law and lawyers and by shifts in viewer tastes. These same factors have necessitated changes in the way we define 'American trial films'. In earlier years one could recognize a trial film with relative ease: it was a drama in which a heroic lawyer or lawyer surrogate solved the film's dilemmas in the course of a civil or criminal trial, usually a trial held within a courtroom. Contemporary movies, in contrast, are more interested in action than in debate and oratory, and they are more cynical about the effectiveness of legal processes. Thus they tend to embed a short trial scene in a longer adventure story, and they seldom depict lawyers as heroes on the grand scale or courts as places where fundamental social and moral issues are settled. In sum, the trial film genre is undergoing major change, if not dissolution.     

Occupational workplace and traffic fatalities in Alsace, France (2000–2005): Results of toxicological investigations

France ranks as leader country in Europe for the consumption of cannabis as well as of psychoactive medications. Whereas the relationship between psychotropics and road accidents is now well-established, few data are still available on the influence of drugs on occupational accidents. The purpose of the present study was to measure the prevalence of psychoactive drug intake (alcohol excepted) among victims of occupational fatalities (including workplace accidents + traffic accidents, i.e. on the way to and from work) occurred in the region Alsace over the period 2000–2005. Data were collected by compiling files on occupational accidents from two different public agencies (CRAM, Regional Sickness Fund Alsace-Moselle; DRTEFP, Regional Department of Work, Employment and Professional Training) together with those from the Medico-Legal Institute of Strasbourg over the period tested. Data analysis showed that 3% of the victims of workplace fatalities were under the influence of drugs (alcohol excluded) at the time of accident, as well as 5% of the victims of occupational traffic accidents. Our results also highlight a low rate of toxicological analyses, since these investigations were requested by the authorities in 41% of traffic victims and only 15% of workplace victims. In France, the relevance of psychoactive drug intake in occupational deaths is much better targeted in the case of traffic fatalities (due to the existence of specific regulations, e.g. compulsory urinalysis for drugs of abuse in drivers involved in a road accident) than in those occurred at workplace (no specific regulations).     

“Living” Law: Performative, Not Discursive

This article questions some assumptions in legal, moral and political theory regarding the law??s ways of functioning. As the constant revival of the topos ??living law?? shows, underlying common models of law, and of the legitimacy of law, is, though often implicitly, the view that law is or should be particular, near to the facts, flexible, susceptible to realities, and as a consequence accessible to modernisations. However, this article proposes an immanent critique of similar hopes or fears, and it argues that modern positive law can not be responsive to any other ??order?? or context because it constitutes an order of its own. The article seeks to give an explanation of the specific character and forms of the juridical operating and to explain more specifically how decisions are produced. The article in this regard also investigates the importance and role of imagination, fiction and performativity. Underlining the fact that the juridical exceeds legal propositions by asserting itself as a distinct form of social communication, it calls for a shift from the representational to the performative analysis in the study of law.     

霸权、话语建构、反极权主义:后马克思主义社会批判空间转向

处于后现代主义语境中的西方马克思主义,在20世纪60年代之后逐渐转向了一种后马克思主义的理论视域。以拉克劳和莫菲所代表的后马克思主义,运用话语、霸权等逻辑消弭马克思主义阶级主体的正当性,以此回应现实社会政治变化的趋势,从而提出了激进、多元的民主解放的蓝图。阿伦特的反极权主义理论在20世纪后期可谓独树一帜,体现出让人耳目一新的原创性和洞察力。而反对本质主义、反对极权主义也是后马克思主义的微观政治特征之一。     

The Suicide Mortality Rates between 1997–1998 and 2000–2001 in Nantou County of Taiwan Following the Earthquake of September 21 in 1999

Abstract:  The paper aims to show the different suicide mortality rate between 1997–1998 and 2000–2001 in Nantou County of Taiwan with earthquake on September 21 (often referred to as the "9-21 earthquake") in 1999. In additional, it also identifies the preventive strategies for the high-risk suicide population. The age-standardized mortality rates for suicide in Nantou County were calculated for the years 1997–1998 and 2000–2001. The suicide standardized mortality ratio (SMR for townships in Nantou were calculated by "type of township" as the standard rate). There is a statistically significant difference in male suicide rates for the years prior to the earthquake (1997–1998) when pooled and compared to the suicide rates for the years after the earthquake (2000–2001). The rate for four age groups (under 25, 25–44, 45–64, 65 and above) all increased, yet all but one (the group of age 45–64) was not statistically significant. The male SMR has slightly increased after the 9-21 earthquake. Yet there are no statistical significances in most townships, except in Kaohsiung and Puli after the 9-21 earthquake. The Kaohsiung SMRs were 1.36 (95% CI: 0.54–2.80) before the earthquake (1997–1998) and 2.01 (95% CI: 1.04–3.52) after the earthquake (2000–2001). The SMRs before and after the earthquake in the Puli Township were 1.51 (95% CI: 0.95–2.29) to 1.56 (95% CI: 1.03–2.27). This study suggests that monitoring high-risk population, especially males or 45–64 years of age who experienced the highest statistically significant suicide rate in this study. The study provides support for providing both the psychological restoration program and, to the extent feasible, financial support for the unemployed as useful public health strategies for suicide prevention in Taiwan.     

Langauge and Violence: Analysis of Four Discursive Operations

The Interactional and Discursive View of Violence and Resistance is a framework for critical analysis and research, prevention and intervention that takes into account the conditions that enable personalized violence, the actions of perpetrators and victims, and the language used in representing those actions. Using this analytic framework, we analyzed five accounts of personalized violence, one each from a perpetrator, a psychiatrist, a judge, a government minister, and a therapist. Our results demonstrate the scope and the ubiquity with which diverse accounts locally accomplish four-discursive-operations; namely, the concealing of violence, obfuscating of perpetrators’ responsibility, concealing of victims’ resistance, and blaming and pathologizing of victims. We examine the specific linguistic devices that combine to accomplish the four-discursive-operations in each case. These data suggest that the problem of violence is inextricably linked to the problem of representation.

Discursive ethnomethodology: Analysing power and resistance in talk

Abstract

In order to better understand relationships between forms of institutional discourse and social interaction we outline an approach to the study of power in talk which we call discursive ethnomethodology. Following commas on approaches to the study of language and power, we illustrate our framework through analysis of an interview between a police officer and suspect where the latter exhibits a ‘right to silence’. Essentially, our approach distinguishes between two aspects of talk as event the immediate participation context, end the discursive or ‘folk-model’ resources employed by participants in context. Corresponding to these aspects are implicit/explicit expressions of power and resistance and externally available discursive objects. Through example extracts we illustrate how this framework can be employed in forensic psychology, bringing together both discursive psychology and critical discourse analysis alongside the ethnomethodological orientation of conversation analysis.     

Brazilian Environmental Laws and Policies, 1934–2002: A Critical Overview

This article describes and analyzes major laws, decrees, regulations, resolutions, and institutional mandates linked to environmental protection policies in Brazil, from 1934 to 2002. It argues that many early regulations resulted basically from centralization and planning policies conducted by a development-oriented state. However, it shows that most recent regulations were demanded by a more environmentally aware and more organized civil society, in the context of a more participatory and democratic political framework and improved scientific knowledge and requirements.     

The Lawrence Inquiry – Incompetence, Corruption, and Institutional Racism

The inquiry into the murder of black teenager Stephen Lawrence in South London in 1993, which reported earlier this year, documents a catalogue of police incompetence and 'institutional racism'. The report also puts forward a number of far-reaching recommendations, echoing long-standing demands by the black community, for the reform of policing in Britain. Yet, in its approach to 'institutional racism', the report can be seen to have downplayed the need for a critical re-examination of policing policies and priorities at a strategic level. As a result, many of its key recommendations, in such areas as stop and search and the policing of racist crime, may prove ineffective. The government's commitment to 'anti-racism', following the Lawrence report, is also called into question by its subsequent decision to further restrict the rights of defendants and the ability of black people to defend themselves against racist police practices through the criminal justice system.     

Up,Close and Personal: The Discursive Transformation of Judicial Politics in Post-Dutroux Belgium

Ending the influence which politicalparties exercised over judicial appointmentswas a prominent aim of the project of reformingthe Belgian criminal justice system in the1990s. However, focusing on various highprofile scandals affecting public confidence inthe judiciary, this paper questions whether thepolitical nature of the judiciary is capable ofbeing eradicated. Drawing on the work ofChantal Mouffe, this analysis starts with aconsideration of the discursive element inpolitical identity, which is furthercorroborated by the semiotics of Saussure andGreimas. Applying this perspective to theBelgian situation in the 1990s, it is arguedthat a redefinition of politics in terms of an``us/them' divide between citizens andinstitutions took place. In this process,judges were targeted as part of theestablishment and cast as the constitutiveoutside buttressing the collectiveidentification between the media, victims ofcrime and the general public. In explaining theinstitutional gap, individual traits of judgesconstituted a significant focus, as can beshown through the extraordinary visibility ofone judge who courted media attention when hewas tried for sadomasochistic activities in1997.