‘Alien family’: The impact of the Aliens Act 1935 and subsequent Orders on the family in Ireland, 1933–1945

This article examines the consequences of Irish ‘aliens’ policy on families fleeing Nazi Germany using case studies of Irish German-speaking families and German-speaking families to ascertain the difficulties they faced. Analysis of the applications process undergone by families in order to secure a safe-haven from the reaches of the Third Reich reveals the main concerns of the Irish establishment and how these matters affected the potential safety of some individuals above others because of how they were officially categorised. Juxtaposing those who were considered an asset to Irish society against those who were not granted refuge this study traces the process both endured. While this article outlines the Irish government policy on refugees it focuses more particularly on how civil servants and government agencies implemented such policies and the subsequent impact on refugee family units affected by the Nazi regime.1 1?My doctoral research forms part of the German-speaking exiles in Ireland Project an initiative led by Dr Gisela Holfter in the Centre for Irish-German Studies at the University of Limerick. The overall project is attempting to fill a previous void in international exile studies, from an Irish perspective see Holfter, Gisela (Ed.). (2006 Holfter, Gisela, ed. 2006. German-speaking Exiles in Ireland 1933-1945, Amsterdam: Rodopi. New York [Google Scholar]). German-speaking Exiles in Ireland 1933-1945 Amsterdam/New York: Rodopi. This article attempts to reconcile internal policy, international relations and the effect these had on the lives of ordinary people both German-speaking and Irish. It will conclude by recognising the importance to the Irish authorities of the former two elements while acknowledging that despite them there were some successes for refugees although they were of least consequence in the priorities of the day.     

The Jewish population and family in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in the second half of the 18th century

The sources that can be employed to examine demographic aspects of the Jewish population and family in 18th-century Poland–Lithuania are sparse and mostly fiscal in origin. Since this source material has been preserved only for some periods and regions, few generalizations can be made. First, the authors have referred to the most comprehensive census that was carried out in 1791 by household in Cracow province (województwo krakowskie). It does not allow for detailed family reconstitution, however. Although extended/multiple family households might have been fairly common, the two-generational conjugal family unit seems to have prevailed, and no more than four nuclear families lived in one house. In addition, the age at first marriage was influenced only to a limited extent by the traditional practice of early marriage.     

How do parents experience relocation disputes in the family courts?

Relocation cases are known to be amongst the most difficult decisions for family court judges. This article reports the findings of an empirical study of parents who were involved in relocation disputes, reporting their views on the experience of being involved in one of these difficult cases. We consider the origins of the disputes and parents’ perceptions of how their cases were resolved, as well as some initial discussion of the aftermath of the cases as seen in the first few months.     

Legal professionals’ knowledge and experience of autistic adults in the family justice system

Abstract

Access to justice is a key theme in the family justice system, especially for those with particular vulnerabilities. Autism, a development condition characterised by difficulties in social communication and interaction, and the presence of rigid, repetitive behaviours, presents particular challenges in this area. This paper reports the findings of a mixed-methods study with legal professionals working in the family justice system, asking about their knowledge of autism, their perceived self-efficacy when working with autistic clients, and their experience of cases involving autistic litigants. The study reports high levels of knowledge, but low levels of confidence, by legal professionals (N = 204), and addresses the experiences of particular cases in follow-up discussions (N = 10). The paper concludes by making a series of recommendations for legal professionals to assist autistic people to engage fully in family court proceedings.     

Marriage and household in the Belgrade elite at the beginning of the 20th century: The Novaković family

Building on Ahmad ibn Yusuf b. al-Qadi al-Timbuktawi's treatise entitled Hatk al-Sitr Amma Alayhi Sudani Tunis min al-Kufr (Piercing the Veil: Being an Account of the Infidel Religions of the Blacks of Tunis) this paper examines the implications of the Hausa non-Muslim Bori cult practice in Ottoman Tunis on enslaved West Africans' retentions of religious and family values from their original homelands. Specifically, the paper traces and analyses the evolution of Bori cult practice in the Tunisian milieu and places it in its proper historical and diasporic contexts. To this end, the paper goes beyond questions that are not central to al-Timbuktawi's condemnation of the enslaved West African community of Tunis, but which nonetheless attracts the attention of scholars interested in the diasporic and historical significance of Bori cult practice in the Maghreb.     

A commentary on the principle of the child’s best interests —the weakness and improvement of marriage and family law

International documents like the Declaration of the Rights of the Child (1959) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) propose that in mediating on children issues, the best interests of the child should be the primary consideration. In China, the Constitution and the Law on the Protection of Minors have already set out the terms in principle for the protection of minors, however, it has not been defined in the Marriage Law (2001). In order to enforce the commitment of respecting and safeguarding human rights, the child’s best interest principle should be established in marriage and family law, along with amending related provisions.     

Trust in the proposed EU regulation on trust services?

A few months after ICRI's 20th anniversary conference the European Commission adopted on 4 June 2012 a draft regulation “on electronic identification and trusted services for electronic transactions in the internal market”. The proposed legal framework is intended to give legal effect and mutual recognition to trust services including enhancing current rules on e-signatures and providing a legal framework for electronic seals, time stamping, electronic document acceptability, electronic delivery and website authentication. Yet, this draft Regulation provokes many questions with regard to the implicit “trust” concept on which it is based. Starting from their experience in the EU FP7 uTRUSTit project (Usable Trust in the Internet of Things: www.utrustit.eu) and in other ICRI research projects, Jos Dumortier and Niels Vandezande have analyzed the proposed legislative text of the European Commission and wrote a few critical observations. Although obviously not presented at the conference in November 2011, it seemed worthwhile to add this contribution to its proceedings.     

Evaluation of the one-step Lumicyano™ used in the visualisation of fingermarks on fabrics

This study consisted of three parts to evaluate the performance of Lumicyano? on a variety of fabrics. One part assessed the impact of dye percentage (8%, 9% and 10%) on visualisation of fingermark detail and luminescent brightness in split grab marks. A 9% dye produced the highest quality detail of grab impressions with least interference from background fluorescence. The second part investigated the optimal relative humidity (RH, 75–84%) for certain fabric types using Lumicyano on split, six-series depletion fingermarks. It was concluded that the recommended RH of 80% remained the ideal cyanoacrylate fuming environment. The final and third part of this study determined the impact of sequential addition of Basic Yellow 40 (BY40) on Lumicyano compared to traditional cyanoacrylate (CA) followed with BY40 application. Results from this study demonstrated that Lumicyano on its own developed fingermarks with superior quality to Lumicyano with sequential addition of BY40 or traditional cyanoacrylate followed by BY40. Inclusion of more fabrics, donors and longer ageing periods should be explored in future studies to determine what frameworks are best for certain types of fabrics.     

Combining work and family in the Netherlands: Blessing or burden for one's mental health?

In this article we study which characteristics of combining work and family put people at risk for mental illness. Two alternative perspectives on the impact of multiple social roles on mental health are tested: the role accumulation perspective and the role strain perspective. Both perspectives are studied with data from a cross-sectional national survey held among a large, representative sample of Dutch people (N=1008). Multivariate analyses provided support for both perspectives. Having more social roles was related to better mental health. We also found a positive mental health effect of having a full-time job in combination with having children. However, having a partner who contributes less to household duties or having a job with low decision latitude or lower skill discretion was related to mental illness. So, certain aspects of social roles may also threaten people's mental health. Overall, our findings do not support the idea that combining work and family is necessarily a burden and harmful for people's mental health. Whether multiple social roles are a blessing or burden for people's mental health seems to depend on the characteristics of the social roles.     

Repeating the errors of our parents? Parental violence in men's family of origin and conflict management in dating couples

Within a social learning model, family-of-origin violence places men at risk for developing negative communication in their adult relationships. Thirty young men exposed to family-of-origin violence (exposed group) and 30 unexposed young men were videotaped discussing a conflict topic with their female dating partners. Relative to the unexposed group, the exposed men and women reported higher relationship aggression and during discussion showed more negative communication, were more domineering, and the men reported more negative affect. There were no differences between the groups on cognition or heart rate. The conflict management deficits and aggression evident in the exposed group suggest that these partners are at high risk for future relationship aggression and distress.     

A research note on the association between work–family conflict and job stress among Chinese prison staff

Job stress, which has been found to have numerous negative effects on U.S. correctional staff, occurs as a result of stressors in the work environment. Recent research in the U.S. suggests that work–family conflict (e.g. time-based conflict, strain-based conflict, behavior-based conflict, and family-based conflict) may contribute to job stress for correctional staff. This exploratory study examined how different dimensions of work–family conflict were associated with job stress by surveying 322 staff at 2 Chinese prisons, 1 for male inmates and 1 for female inmates, in Guangzhou. An Ordinary Least Squares regression equation was computed with the job stress index as the dependent variable, and the personal characteristics (i.e. age, tenure, gender, educational level, and marital status) and the four work–family conflict variables as the independent variables. The independent variables explained about 49% of the observed variance in the job stress variable. The personal characteristics, time-based conflict, and family-on-work conflict did not have a statistically significant association with job stress in the multivariate analysis, but both strain-based conflict and behavior-based conflict had negative associations.     

The role of justice in the North–South conflict in climate change: the case of negotiations on the Adaptation Fund

Justice, by and large, implies greater legitimacy and can persuade parties with conflicting interests to cooperate more closely on collective actions. Therefore, the aim of this article is to investigate the role that ethical arguments have played in restoring mutual trust between the developed and the developing countries in negotiations on the Kyoto Protocol Adaptation Fund and in transforming the patent failure of the Subsidiary Body for Implementation Bonn May 2006 meetings on its management into the encouraging success of the Nairobi December 2006 round. These meetings are analysed from the perspectives of procedural and distributive justice in order to interpret the negotiating dynamics and their outcomes. More specifically, procedural and distributive justice are, respectively, sought in the Bonn and Nairobi formal meetings through reference to, and the emergence of, principles and criteria of participation, recognition and distribution of power among Parties, and of Parties’ responsibility for, and vulnerability to, climate impacts.     

Are grandparents really absent from the family tradition?: Forbears in the Region of Vernon (France) around 1800

The history of grandparents is too often founded on a demographic prejudice, that is, the very low statistical possibility of children having known their grandparents before the rise in life expectancy in the twentieth century. On the basis of a sample of several thousand children bom in the region of Vernon (Normandy) at the end of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth century, the article contests this idea and shows that newborns knew about half of their grandparents, with a slight advantage on the grandmothers' side. Inequalities were present between elder and younger siblings, but the latter also profited from the presence of their forbears. Consequently, the study of the different functions served by grandparents in the traditional family should be pursued, and questions should be raised about the contemporary concept of “new grandparents” by separating it from the demographic assumption on which it is based.     

Stay or leave? Individual choice and family logic: the destinations of children born in the Valserine Valley (French Jura) in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

"To study inheritance, it is necessary in the first place to know the number of heirs in each family, how property was divided between them, and whether their inheritance was sufficient to enable them to maintain and support several children in the parish. This study examines the process by which the populations of the parishes of Valserine Valley in France reproduce themselves from one generation to the next, by means of examining the ?effective' progeny of couples to determine how many of them produce children (heirs) who continue to live in the Valley. The ultimate goal of these researches is to establish the characteristics of those who leave the Valley, and how these differ from those who choose to stay. The article examines whether it is possible to discern a family strategy in the way these decisions are made, and whether behavior of the persons in question is determined by individual choice."     

Citizenship,Belonging and Attachment in the ‘War on Terror’

The ‘war on terror’ has had an enormous impact on citizens’ legal rights and legal status. Using data from interviews with British Pakistani Kashmiri Muslims, this paper explores how the change to citizens’ legal rights and legal status in the ‘war on terror’, the legal dimension of citizenship, has impacted the psychological dimension of citizenship. Through denoting legal rights, equality and status the study revealed the powerful role of the state and the police in shaping citizens’ perceptions of the legal dimension of citizenship. The paper explores how changes to participants’ perceptions of their legal status and legal rights are instrumental in shaping the psychological dimension of citizenship—participants’ sense of loyalty, belonging and attachment to their British identity and their Islamic identity.