Education for the provision of technologically enhanced legal services

Legal professionals increasingly rely on digital technologies when they provide legal services. The most advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) promise great advancements of legal services, but lawyers are traditionally not educated in the field of digital technology and thus cannot fully unlock the potential of such technologies in their practice. In this paper, we identify five distinct skills and knowledge gaps that prevent lawyers from implementing AI and digital technology in the provision of legal services and suggest concrete models for education and training in this area. Our findings and recommendations are based on a series of semi-structured interviews, design and delivery of an experimental course in ‘Law and Computer Science’, and an analysis of the empirical data in view of wider debates in the literature concerning legal education and 21st century skills.     

关于政府购买公共服务的探讨

政府购买公共服务是市场经济条件下社会发展的一项新生事物,它既体现了政府追求效率,转变职能的方式,又促进了社会组织的发展成熟,是政府与社会组织合作的一种崭新方式。本文从政府购买公共服务的内涵、国内外政府购买的现实、政府购买存在的问题、政府购买的对策几个方面进行了初步探讨,试图对正在开展和即将开展的政府购买工作起到借鉴作用。     

浅析网络舆论与司法审判的关系

网络舆论作为司法审判的一种重要监督手段,在很大程度上对司法审判起着重要的促进作用,与此同时,网络舆论也因其各方面的特点表现出对司法审判强大的攻击力和影响力,甚至形成"舆论审判",并有愈演愈烈之势。面对如此严峻的"司法困境",从网络舆论的几个方面进行研究,侧重分析其与司法审判的内在机理。力争通过对网络舆论的"聆听",把握二者本质规律,进一步思考能够促进司法审判的各方面因素,力求实现二者的良性协调。     

Decreeing organizational change: judicial supervision of public institutions.

In the last fifteen years or so, courts have issued a small but significant number of decrees requiring that governmental bodies reorganize themselves so that their behavior will comport with certain legal standards. Such decrees, addressed to school systems, prison and mental hospital officials, welfare administrators, and public housing authorities, insert trial courts in the ongoing business of public administration. In this article, Professor Horowitz traces the origins, characteristics, and consequences of organizational change decrees. He finds their roots in an unusually fluid and indeterminate system of procedural forms and legal rules, a system hospitable to the impact of changing ideas about the performance of bureaucracy and the role of courts. He explores the problematic character of organizational change litigation, underscoring the ways in which organizational behaviour is fraught with a variety of informal relationships beyond the contemplation of the courts. In Professor Horowitz 's judgment, efforts to augment the capacity of courts to cope more effectively with organizational change litigation may redound to the disadvantage of the judicial process by emphasizing the new managerial role of the courts at the expense of their traditional moral function. He concludes by suggesting that capricious budgetary ramifications, unintended consequences, and the impact of unconventional enforcement practices on the courts themselves be included among the elements of a full evaluation of organizational change litigation.     

The judicial review of legislation in the United Kingdom: a public choice analysis

The Human Rights Act 1998 unprecedentedly enabled the senior courts in the United Kingdom to review parliamentary enactments for compatibility with the European Convention on Human Rights. This article seeks to analyze within the framework of public choice economics two phenomena arising from this development that are counterintuitive: What made Parliament voluntarily invite the judiciary to monitor its acts? Why has Parliament consistently complied with rulings of the Judicial House of Lords that challenged primary legislation over the last 10 years? It argues that the Act was designed in a way that fulfilled the electoral commitments of the enacting majority by supplying promised policies to its constituencies, while minimizing agency costs and information problems in favor of Parliament’s corporate interests. Significantly, the Act left intact the veto powers of Parliament and the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. As such, it disincentivized the Judicial House of Lords to risk costly overturns of its rulings by Parliament for straying too far from the range of the ideal policy positions spanned by Parliament and Strasbourg. Drawing from the empirical evidence of the past decade, it will be shown that in nearly all cases the Law Lords have either upheld the compatibility of challenged statutes, reaffirmed parliamentary preferences, or followed the jurisprudence of the Strasbourg Court.     

论私法上公序良俗条款的基本功能

一、法律行为与公序良俗条款在私人自治原则之下,当事人得藉法律行为或合同自主地从事交易活动,立法者或裁判者原则上无权置喙此种民事活动的正当性与妥当性,因为“自治法既然强调自治,似乎就不应再渗入公共政策的考量,让它像一套中性的比赛规则一样,没有政策就是它的政策。这确实是传统民法从罗马法以降向来隐藏的一个大前提。”〔1〕然而,基于维护公共利益或当事人利益甚或其他正当理由的考量,法律也设置规范对私人自治予以一定的限制。综观世界各国或各地区民法关于法律行为或合同有效要件的规定,可以说,这些立法均毫无例外的以一定的表…     

On the meaning and measurement of output and efficiency in the provision of urban police services

Most proposals for changing the organization of police serving metropolitan areas are presented without any evidence concerning the effectiveness of differently organized police departments in serving urban areas. Assertions are simply made that large scale police departments are more effective and more efficient. This paper attempts first to define the concepts of output and efficiency for police agencies. Secondly, it attempts to develop some potential measures of output and efficiency which could be used in evaluating the comparative output and efficiency of differently organized police departments serving metropolitan areas. A simplified scheme is presented which divides police activities into four types and discusses the problems of measurement for each type. The problems of measuring output and efficiency become more and more difficult as one moves from the first through the fourth type of police activity. While extensive difficulties are present in any attempt to measure the output and efficiency of police agencies, such efforts must be undertaken in order to evaluate the success of past reforms and to be able to predict future successes or failures with higher degrees of accuracy. Without serious attempts to evaluate the consequences of reform, future changes may produce more harm than good.     

The impact of new immigration patterns on the provision of police services in midwestern communities

This was the first study to investigate the effect of new immigration patterns on police-community relations in small midwestern communities impacted by the development of a large food processing plant and subsequent addition of a large Hispanic population. Using a case study approach, multiple sources of data were collected from law enforcement agencies, community/government leaders, and residents in three rural Missouri communities. The findings revealed that the language barrier was the greatest challenge affecting the development of a police-Hispanic community relationship. Fear of the police, immigration issues, and the nature of contacts between the police and the Latino community also had a significant impact on the relationship.     

Economic efficiency in the provision of legal services: The private practitioner and the law centre

This paper seeks to examine the efficiency of the provision of legal services by alternative institutional modes of supply. Using a sample of unfair dismissal cases handled by a private practitioner and a law centre, an analysis of inputs and outputs was carried out. The objective of this analysis was to try to determine whether any systematic differences in these variables could be detected between the two legal modes. Although our sample size does not permit the drawing of broad generalizations, the results do represent a first step towards a full assessment of legal services supplied. There are important policy implications which could be drawn from this study regarding the mode of provision which the government should favour in maintaining or extending the availability of public funding for legal services.     

Security assessment of suppliers of telecommunications infrastructure for the provision of services in 5G technology

The process of commencing services based on 5G technology has begun. One condition for starting up 5G technology is the distribution of the frequencies required for the provision of those services. For the first time in the process of making frequencies available, requirements have arisen pertaining to the security of the infrastructure necessary for the provision of those services. In the EU, recommendations have been drawn up, based in particular on an NISCG report entitled Cybersecurity of 5G networks EU Toolbox of risk mitigating measures. In this article, an analysis is made of the implementation of those recommendations concerning suppliers of infrastructure, based on examples from selected EU countries, in order to ensure that such assessments are objective and transparent. In some cases, the provisions implementing the recommendations do not fully protect the fundamental rights of the entities assessed as foreseen in EU and domestic law, particularly the right to a fair trial before an independent court. I propose certain changes in the regulations pertaining to suppliers of telecommunications equipment.     

The place of punishment: Variation in the provision of inmate services staff across the punitive turn

Despite the growing literature on the punitive turn, knowledge of how the experience of American imprisonment varied across time and place remains limited. This article begins to fill that gap, providing a nuanced portrayal of variation in the practices of rehabilitation.

Purpose

To examine how one aspect of the rehabilitative ideal in practice—the provision of staff dedicated to inmate services—varied across time and place over the past 30 years.

Methods

The article presents statistics on the inmate-to-staff ratios for inmate services staff (including teachers, counselors, doctors, etc.) between the years 1979 and 2005 for all 50 U.S. states.

Results

The analyses reveal that while there was a substantial decline in the services staff ratio during the 1990s and 2000s, this shift across time paled in comparison to variation across place. Northeastern prison systems, for example, on average maintained higher inmate services staff ratios in 2005 than Southern states in any year. In addition, results suggest state variation is related to differences in prison crowding, inmates’ racial composition, and political cultures.

Conclusions

The findings suggest the punitive turn was more variegated and partial than is often assumed and highlight the importance of exploring state variation in penal practices.     

从实施《行政许可法》论准司法领域的公共管理

2003年8月出台的《行政许可法》,作为我国行政法领域的基本法将在2004年7月实施。这部法律对行政许可的基本原则、行政许可的设定、实施行政许可的机关、实施行政许可的程序、行政许可的费用、行政许可事项的监督和法律责任等作了明确规定。在一定意义上可以说,这是一部限制、弱化政府职权的法律。它的贯彻实施,势必促进行政管理体制的     

司法相关权力视角下的司法改革方案

通过对指数报告进行统计数据和测试题目两个层面的分析,可以发现司法改革方案需要注意的几个问题:司法改革方案的整体性、配套性、正当性、有效性的改革方向和更多的具体课题,应充分考虑地方性的特殊因素,确保司法改革方案的讨论、确定程序的参与性。     

统一司法考试对中国司法体制的影响

一、概述 众所周知,我国现行的司法体制构建于计划经济时代,在机构设置、职权划分、人财物管理、工作机制、诉讼程序及管理制度等方面有许多不完善、不科学之处,存在不少的弊端。这些弊端的存在,对外而言,使司法机关无法摆脱地方主义和部门保护主义的影响,最终导致本应作为中央权力的司法权分散化和地方化,司法的统一性受到破坏,司法权威受到损害;对内而言,不符合司法权运行的特殊规律,司法行政化倾向明显,严重影响了司法的公正与效率,同样也使司法权威受     

The effects of criminal victimization and judicial or police contacts on public attitudes toward local police

The effects both of victimization and of police or judicial contacts on attitudes toward the police are studied by means of survey data collected in British Columbia (Canada). Such attitudes toward the police are generally favorable across all subpopulations but tend to be lower than average among: people who have experienced a household criminal victimization during the preceding year, those who have experienced an adverse contact with the police, and especially among those who have experienced or observed what they perceive to be improper police field practices. Police perceptions of widespread hostility appear unwarranted, even in the case of traffic violators and of those who have been arrested or convicted. Such findings are compared with data from other parts of Canada, the United States, Australia, and New Zealand.