Vicarious Liability and Non‐Delegable Duty for Child Abuse in Foster Care: A Step Too Far?

In NA v Nottinghamshire County Council the Court of Appeal held that a local authority is not liable under vicarious liability or for breach of a non‐delegable duty when foster parents sexually or physically abuse a child that it has placed in their care. The note discusses the decision in the light of recent developments in the law. It is argued that the result is unsatisfactory in terms of doctrine and policy. It is further suggested that non‐delegable duty, rather than vicarious liability, offers the most appropriate route for establishing liability.     

Diversion Under Malaysian Juvenile Justice System: a Case of Too Little Too Late?

The concept and practice of diversion are not a novel phenomenon. For many years, diversion from formal adjudication by court has been widely adopted as an important feature of various juvenile justice systems across the countries. There are different forms of diversion programmes which have been designed and implemented with the aim to divert children from direct contact with formal criminal process. Various researches on diversion programmes have disclosed positive impacts on their effectiveness in handling children in conflict with the law. This article focuses on criminal process under current Malaysian juvenile justice, in which the concept of diversion is still a strange subject. It highlights issues under current juvenile criminal justice and examines the possibility of integrating diversion programmes as alternative measures to deal with children in conflict with the law. Introduction of diversion programmes as part of the current system is seemed as potential alternative measures to improve the effectiveness of the current Malaysian juvenile justice system.     

Predatory Innovation: A Step Beyond? (Understanding Competition in High-technology Markets)

The idea of a direct relationship between innovation and progress must be reconsidered. Innovation, in other periods of History merely pursued for the sake of Mankind, eventually turned into an grail for companies willing to see their sales increased. The last decades had witnessed another turn of the screw in that identification: innovation may be used as a weapon to destroy rivals and take over a market, regardless of any considerations of progress. Competition law is not foreign to these new circumstances. The inclusion of innovation as a variable in the context of an exclusionary strategy entails not only an important aggression to free competition, but to social welfare. Due to the novelty of these practices, competition law is still adapting itself to the new scenario. This paper explains the underlying complexity of the study of predatory innovation, establishing the foundations for its proper understanding and subsequent approach of the conclusions to market operators, legislators, judges and to society itself.     

Public Broadcast Stations' Exclusion of Candidates from Debates: A Step Toward Political Independence?

Government-operated broadcast stations are in an anomalous situation in their continuing struggle for political independence. Not only must government stations meet the informational needs of their audiences, the stations must address the market-induced failures of commercial broadcasting. Controlling their programming is one facet of meeting these obligations. Nevertheless, government stations have been accused of violating the First Amendment when they have exercised their editorial discretion to exclude candidates from debates sponsored by the stations. This article explores political candidates' rights of access to debates in light of a United States Supreme Court decision that held that government stations may use subjective criteria to exclude candidates from debates. Although the Court's decision reinforced government stations' First Amendment rights to exercise editorial discretion, the decision did not significantly advance public broadcasting's struggle for political independence.     

“She's Way Too Good to Lose”: An Evaluation of Honolulu's Girls Court

This research evaluates the efficacy of a gender-specific, problem-solving court for girl offenders. Official statistics, interview data, and focus group data are utilized to determine whether the court is achieving its stated goals of reducing recidivism, risky behaviors, and confinement for the girls who attend this court program. The present research demonstrates that the program does seem to be effective in terms of reducing both recidivism and risky behavior as well as increasing the development of prosocial and healthy relationships. The article concludes with some lessons learned from the implementation of this court program as well as ideas for future research.     

EU–China Competition Dialogue: A New Step in the Internationalisation of EU Competition Law?

EU has been the protagonist in promoting the internationalization of competition laws based on EU competition law norms. The development of China's Antimonopoly Law shows that EU has succeeded so far in establishing itself as the main reference point for China's competition regulation. The success can be mainly attributed to the EU‐China Competition Dialogue (Dialogue), a new initiative set up by EU and China in 2004. The paper reviews the internationalization of EU competition law and its characteristics. It then examines the Dialogue and how EU exported its competition law norms to one of the latest AML secondary legislations on Antimonopoly Pricing. It argues that the Dialogue's informal nature, EU's routinized technical assistance to Chinese competition authorities and its China‐oriented strategy in communication have been highly important in ensuring that the EU Competition Law becomes the main reference point for the AML. However, the paper argues that it is for the same reasons that EU faces weakness in controlling the reception of EU competition law norms by China. Based on this, the paper further illustrates that EU's understanding of competition law internationalization as reflected under the Dialogue has not undergone fundamental changes.     

Too Fine to be Good? Issues of Granularity,Uniformity and Error in Spatial Crime Analysis

Journal of Quantitative Criminology - Crime counts are sensitive to granularity choice. There is an increasing interest in analyzing crime at very fine granularities, such as street segments, with...     

“Too much changing has happened to go back”: professional development,paradigm shifts and poetry

Restorative justice (RJ) holds significant potential as a means for nurturing relational school cultures and addressing harm within those contexts. However, educators participating in professional development (pd), often articulate a commitment to RJ in principle but tend to continue practicing a pedagogy that focuses on controlling student (mis) behavior apart from its relational context. Considering the strong philosophical perspective of humanity on which RJ is grounded, this phenomenological case study examines the impact of pd that explicitly (a) engages with core beliefs and values of RJ and (b) invites participants to examine their personal philosophical stance. Employing theory-guided analysis and poetic inquiry to examine participants’ reflections nine months following their experience, results indicate that commitment and practice are better aligned. A significant change in perspectives emerges self; others; current practice; and group engagement. A list of recommended components for professional development concludes the article.     

Too big to fail,too powerful to jail? On the absence of criminal prosecutions after the 2008 financial meltdown

Various explanations have been offered regarding the causes of the current global economic crisis that was spawned by the collapse of mortgage-based securities in the U.S. that were sold world-wide and that contained "toxic assets" comprised of subprime loans. There is ample evidence that such loans were originated through fraud. Firms recorded huge profits, and executives were awarded large bonuses even though some had led their companies into bankruptcy and plunged both the U.S. and global economies into the greatest recession since the Great Depression. This paper assesses the reasons why there have been no major prosecutions to date, and compares the U.S. government's response to that in the savings and loan crisis. It analyzes the influence of large financial institutions on lawmaking, regulation, and the allocation of enforcement resources, the continued general lack of understanding of financial fraud including control fraud, and problems related to the higher status and power of potential defendants.     

Bhaṭṭoji Dīkṣita’s “Small Step” for a Grammarian and “Giant Leap” for Sanskrit Grammar

This paper is devoted to theoretical and methodical considerations on our study and understanding of macroscopic transitions in the world of Sanskrit intellectuals from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century (cf. Pollock, Indian Economic and Social History Review 38(1):3–31, 2001). It is argued that compared to his immediate predecessors Bha??oji Dīk?ita’s contribution to Prakriyā grammars was modest. It was to a large extent on account of changed circumstances—over the centuries mainly a slow but steady decline—in the position of Sanskrit and the general public’s need for a simple definition of authoritatively correct Sanskrit that Bha??oji’s grammar met with success so quickly, so widely, and so solidly. I once knew a little boy in England who asked his father, “Do fathers always know more than sons?” and the father said “Yes.” The next question was, “Daddy, who invented the steam engine?” and the father said “James Watt.” And then the son came back with “But why didn’t James Watt’s father invent it?” Gregory Bateson (1972, p. 21)      

Dirt Is a Pollutant! Water Is,Too … How to Create Clarity in Environmental Insurance Coverage and Lower the Cost of Environmental Risks

General confusion about what is or could be an excluded-pollutant in property and liability insurance policies has created a situation where insurance agents and brokers cannot accurately advise their customers on how to insure environmental risks. Pollution exclusions are intended to exclude pollution-related claims. Over one hundred different environmental insurances have been designed to fill the coverage gaps created by pollution exclusions. By ignoring the fundamental purpose of pollution exclusions and the broad range of environmental insurance policies that are available, many environmental damage claims are needlessly uninsured today.     

The Effects of Domestic Violence on the Formation of Relationships Between Women and Their Babies: “I Was Too Busy Protecting My Baby to Attach”

Until now, research into the effects of domestic violence on the formation of relationships between women and their babies has been from an attachment theory perspective. The research reported in this article takes a different approach. Innovative qualitative research methods are used to uncover knowledge about the formation of such relationships from the lived experiences of sixteen women who have mothered babies while enduring domestic violence. Analysis of the findings in this study identifies domestic violence constitutes an environment of sustained hostility where women respond with maternal protectiveness to maximise their babies’ physical and psychological safety whether or not they had attained a secure relationship. However, women recognize domestic violence constricts space to form close mother/baby relationships. Supported by these findings, this research suggests policy and practice concerned with relationships between women and babies subjected to domestic violence address protectiveness and space to attach. The article concludes with suggestions for further research.