Mortgaging the future

STUDENT WORKBOOK AS LAW: SOURCES OF LAW AND LAW MAKING By Chris Turner and Leon Riley [Philip Allan, 2006, 52 pp., £3.50 (paperback)]

A LEVEL LAW REVIEW [Philip Allan, Vol. 1, Nos. 1–3, 2005–6, £19.95 for 3 issues]

THE ENGLISH LEGAL SYSTEM By Jacqueline Martin [Key Facts series, Hodder Arnold, 2005, 2nd edn., 132 pp., £5.99 (paperback)]

TORT By Chris Turner [Key Facts series, Hodder Arnold, 2005, 2nd edn., 140 pp., £5.99 (paperback)]

CONTRACT LAW By Chris Turner [Key Facts series, Hodder Arnold, 2005, 2nd edn., 131 pp., £5.99 (paperback)]

CONTRACT LAW By Robert Duxbury [Nutshells, Sweet &; Maxwell, 2006, 7th edn., 162 pp., £7.00 (paperback)]

AS LAW By Catherine Elliott and Frances Quinn [Pearson, 2006, 3rd edn., xxviii + 642 pp., £21.99 (paperback)]

CHILDREN: THE MODERN LAW By Andrew Bainham [Jordan Publishing Ltd, 2005, 3rd edn., 811 pp., £30.00 (paperback)]

HUMAN RIGHTS LAW By Merris Amos [Hart Publishing, 2006, 1st edn., 503 pp., £22.00 (paperback)]

CRIME AND JUSTICE: 1750–1950 By Barry Godfrey and Paul Lawrence [Willan Publishing, 2005, xi + 208 pp., £40.00 (hardback) £17.99 (paperback)]

CRIMINAL JUSTICE: AN INTRODUCTION TO THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM IN ENGLAND AND WALES By M. Davies, H Croall and J. Tyrer [Pearson Education Ltd, 2005, 3rd edn., 477 pp., £25.99 (paperback)]

A FAIR HEARING? ETHNIC MINORITIES IN THE CRIMINAL COURTS By Stephen Shute, Roger Hood and Florence Seemungal (eds.) [Willan Publishing, 2005, 160 pp., £35.00 (hardback)]

PRISON READINGS: A CRITICAL INTRODUCTION TO PRISONS AND IMPRISONMENT By Yvonne Jewkes and Helen Johnston [Willan Publishing, 2006, xi + 305 pp., £50 (hardback); £24 (paperback)]

CAPTURED BY THE MEDIA: PRISON DISCOURSE IN POPULAR CULTURE EDITED By Paul Mason [Willan Publishing, 2006, 240 pp., £40.00 (hardback) £18.99 (paperback)]

TRANSFORMING INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL JUSTICE, RETRIBUTIVE AND RESTORATIVE JUSTICE IN THE TRIAL PROCESS By Mark Findlay and Ralph Henham [Willan Publishing, 2005, 391 pp., £40.00 (hardback)]

WARRANTIES IN MARINE INSURANCE By Baris Soyer [Cavendish Publishing Limited, 2nd edn., 2005, 312 pp., £90.00 (hardback)]

A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO CIVIL LITIGATION By Robert Hill, Helen Wood and Suzanne Fine [Jordans, 2005, 2nd edn., 591 pp., £45 (paperback)]

TRUSTS AND EQUITY By Gary Watt [Oxford University Press, 2006, 2nd edn., 559 pp., £27.99 (paperback)]

TRUSTS TEXTBOOK By Gary Watt [Oxford University Press, 2006, 2nd edn., 459 pp., £26.99 (paperback)]

PRINCIPLES OF CORPORATE INSOLVENCY LAW By Roy Goode [Sweet &; Maxwell, 2005, 3rd edn., 673 pp., £40.00 (paperback)]

LAND LAW By Diane Chappelle [Pearson Longman, 2006, 7th edn., 505 pp., £30.99 (paperback)]

MODERN LAND LAW By Martin Dixon [Cavendish Publishing, 2005, 5th edn., 456 pp., £27.95 (paperback)]

ENVIRONMENTAL LAW By S. Bell &; D. McGillivray [Oxford University Press, 2006, 6th edn., 978 pp., £27.99 (paperback)]

SPORTS LAW By Simon Gardiner et al. [Cavendish Publishing, 2006, 3rd edn., 724 pp., £39.00 (paperback)]     

The forensic psychiatrist of the future

The rate of change in scientific knowledge and the growing psychiatric sophistication of attorneys and courts have made it increasingly difficult for forensic psychiatrists to retain proficiency in the full spectrum of potential professional activities. As the consumers of forensic services become more sophisticated, forensic psychiatrists have an increasing need to become scientifically informed and a decreasing need to become legally informed. Traditional training in forensic psychiatry, which emphasizes clinical, legal, and institutional knowledge and experience, gives short shift to behavioral science and other technical knowledge that can enhance the validity of forensic assessments and their value to the legal system and society. Forensic psychiatrists can best respond to these changes and maximize the value of their assessments by narrowing their focus to some subset of the four branches of the discipline: criminal behavior, mental disability, forensic child psychiatry, and legal aspects of psychiatric practice. Maximal proficiency in each of these four branches requires a greater depth of knowledge and experience than was once sufficient among those who practiced in all four areas. Fellowship training programs and professional organizations should lead forensic psychiatry into the twenty-first century by organizing their efforts along these four parallel tracks.     

Influence of vertical angle of a tool on its tool mark

The paper deals with the influence of the vertical angle of a tool on the resultant tool mark. Experiments were carried out using five screwdrivers on aluminium surfaces, the vertical angle of each screwdriver being varied from 90° to 25° in steps of 5°. It was found that differences in vertical angle greater than 15° may cause non-identity between two marks from the same tool.     

Building our future glass homes – An essay about influencing the future through regulation

The present paper surveys the prospects and possibilities of regulating the application areas of Future and Emerging Technologies (FET) – or in a broader sense, of influencing the future way of life – at the intersection of law, technology and society. It dissects the anticipated further erosion of personal privacy – the focus area of the essay – caused by technological developments and related interests. After sketching out an ironic dystopia, in which the idea of transparency is foisted upon the public by future technological developments, the author contemplates the relationships between legal regulation and the underlying values in the predictable but unknowable milieu of future life conditions. While studying the immutability of fundamental values, the author offers a brief survey of the role of public opinion, as well as of the limitations of taking into account the majority opinion, followed by a thought experiment about the possible ways of regulating the “Code”, approaching it from the direction of two fundamental rights, the right to human dignity and the freedom of academic research. After reaching conflicting conclusions and making a few suggestions about possible ways to regulate the area, the author makes a proposal about the introduction of a small-scale experimental tool, metaphorically named as a predictive learning model of regulation. Despite the difficulties and the uncertainties, the essay's overall perspective on the role of legal regulation is not a pessimistic one, as long as it is used flexibly and in conjunction with other means of regulation.     

和谐社会与中国民事诉讼制度的未来走势

现代和谐社会是“和而不同”、“和而有讼”的社会，民事诉讼的许多功能都有助于和谐社会的成功建构。中国民事诉讼制度与“和谐社会”的诉求尚有距离，在当代和谐社会建构背景下，中国未来民事诉讼制度应追一步优化、完善，有助于和谐社会功能与制度。     

Why study the future of criminal justice?

To a large, extent criminal justice agencies arereactive in nature and thus are at the mercy of evants beyond their control. The author suggest that use of futures research and forecasting methods, followed by development of policy alternatives through futures planning techniques, will aid agencies in becomingproactive —being able to anticipate future trends and develop and choose among alternative policies demed most beneficial to achievement of the goals and objectives of the agency. Some techniques of futures research are discussed as is the efficacy of presentation of findings in the form of scenarios.