Guiding Commitments and Criminal Liability for Attempts

The?? Guiding Commitment View?? is central to Yaffe??s account of attempts in general, and of criminal attempts in particular. I argue, first, that it is too wide, since it does not provide a plausible distinction between attempts and ??mere preparation??; second, that on the other hand Yaffe does not do enough to justify a law of criminal attempts, rather than a broader law that would also cover endangerment; and third, that the Guiding Commitment View cannot deal with some difficult issues about the circumstantial aspects of criminal attempts.     

Criminal Attempts and the Subjectivism/Objectivism Debate

Abstract.  This essay offers a particular view of the distinction between criminal attempts and actions that could constitute "mere preparation" for the later commission of a crime, that prioritizes a proper balancing of public safety and the protection of individual liberty. Modeled after Hart's distinction between the general justifying aims and the principles of distribution of a system of punishment, this view allows a coherent way of distinguishing between attempts and mere preparation that avoids many difficulties associated with subjectivist and objectivist approaches. **     

Attempts to Define ‘Terrorism’ in International Law

Netherlands International Law Review -     

Two Objections to Yaffe on the Criminalization of Attempts

In his recent book Attempts, Gideon Yaffe suggests that attempts should be criminalized because of a principle he dubs the “Transfer Principle.” This principle holds that if a particular form of conduct is legitimately criminalized, then the attempt to engage in that form of conduct is also legitimately criminalized. Although Yaffe provides a powerful defense of the Transfer Principle, in this paper I argue that Yaffe’s argument for it ultimately does not succeed. In particular, I formulate two objections to Yaffe’s argument for the Transfer Principle. First, I argue that a basic assumption about criminalization, on which Yaffe’s argument crucially depends, is incomplete, and Yaffe’s own attempt to supplement it undermines his argument for the Transfer Principle. Second, I argue that Yaffe’s argument does not properly account for the fact that those who merely attempt a crime and those who complete it might sometimes be responding to reasons in different ways. Accordingly, I conclude that Yaffe has not succeeded in establishing the truth of the Transfer Principle.     

Childhood Adversities and Suicide Attempts: A Retrospective Study

The aim of the study was to assess the association among various childhood adversities and suicide attempts. A total of 575 patients of a psychosomatic clinic and general practitioners were examined by use of a structured interview. Seventeen percent of the sample reported a suicide attempt in the past. In particular, two forms of early violence (i.e., sexual abuse and harsh physical punishment) were associated with an increased risk for suicide attempts. In addition, financial hardship was associated with an increased risk for suicide attempts. Parental separation or divorce, and physical arguments between parents, increased the risk only in a bivariate analysis; after controlling for other adversities, no association with suicide attempts remained. Suicide attempts can be considered as an act of violence against oneself; they are associated with early experiences of sexual and physical violence.     

Attempts at drug control in Colombia,Peru and Bolivia

The paper analyzes as part of a broader study the drug-control policy of the cocacocaine producing countries of Colombia, Perú and Bolivia, beginning with a short introduction of the political framework. The legal and political emphasis of this policy lies in the area of control and repression, which therefore is analysed in more detail. One can recognize a (substantial) tendency towards overcriminalisation linked to easier (procedural) possibilities of criminal prosecution and punishment (II). However, this questionable policy, when examined from a civil rights standpoint, proves to be of limited efficacy: given the continuing flow of cocaine to the US and the expanding trade to Europe, the policy can hardly pass a qualitative test considering the quantitative evidence (III). There are basically two alternatives from the viewpoint of the producing countries: the international commercialisation of coca and alternative development; from the viewpoint of the consumer countries the controlled legalisation (IV).This article is based on criminological research about the drug policies of Colombia, Peru and Bolivia, which was accepted at the end of 1992 as a doctoral thesis by the Law Faculty of the University of Munich. It attempts to summarize the substantial results of this research but is compelled, due to its limited scope, to frequently refer to previous publications (Ambos, 1993, 1994).This article was published in an earlier German version in Monatsschrift für Kriminologie und Strafrechtsreform, vol. 76, No. 4/1993, pp. 206–226, in a Spanish version in: Cuadernos de Política Criminal (Madrid) No. 53 (1994) pp. 629–667 and Revista dela Facultad de Ciencias Jurídicas y Politicas, No. 98 (1996), Universidad Central de Venezuela, Caracas, pp. 343–390. — I am indebted to Prof. Daniel Nesereko, University of Botswana for refining the English version and critial comments.     

Conduct and its Consequences: Attempts at Debiasing Jury Judgments

Jurors in negligence cases are supposed to judge a defendant by the reasonableness of his or her conduct and not by the consequences of that conduct. But several studies have shown that a cognitive heuristic known as hindsight bias can skew post hoc judgments of some prior behavior. Thus, jurors who must evaluate the actions of a defendant may be influenced inappropriately by the consequences of those actions. A complementary problem arises when jurors must evaluate the injuries incurred by the plaintiff. Here, jurors' knowledge about the defendant's allegedly negligent conduct can proactively influence their assessment of the plaintiff's injuries and determination of damages. The purpose of the present study was to examine the effectiveness of two procedural techniques intended to reduce or eliminate the impact of hindsight bias in negligence cases—multiple admonitions from a judge about the proper use of evidence—and bifurcation (actually withholding irrelevant evidence from jurors). We presented a re-enacted automobile negligence trial to 355 jury-eligible adults drawn from the community, varied the evidence and instructions that they heard, and measured liability judgments and damage awards from individual jurors both before and after deliberating, and from juries. Results showed that admonitions were generally ineffective in guiding jurors to the proper use of evidence but that bifurcation was relatively more effective. Deliberations had no curative effect on jurors' misapplication of evidence.     

More Attempts: A Reply to Duff, Husak, Mele and Walen

In this paper, I reply to the very thoughtful comments on my book by Antony Duff, Doug Husak, Al Mele and Alec Walen.     

Restraining the Court: Assessing Accounts of Congressional Attempts to Limit Supreme Court Authority

We propose a multilevel account of legislative Court curbing in order to assess existing explanations as to why such proposals come about. We argue that although Court curbing is commonly seen as the result of institutional conflict between Congress and the Supreme Court, it is best understood as a product of three interrelated factors: the individual motivations on the part of lawmakers, the partisan context in which they operate, and institutional disagreements between Court and legislature. We find evidence that micro‐level factors offer an important insight into Court curbing that institution‐focused explanations alone cannot.     

不能犯论的日本路径及其借鉴意义

不同于德国刑法第23条第3款,日本刑法并未将不能犯作为未遂犯的子项加以对待,而是从根本上排除了不能犯的可罚性,并认为在不能犯的情形下并不存在实行行为的着手。于是,在不能犯论这一领域,日本刑法理论所面临的问题主要在于:在同样不存在实害结果的情况下,以何种基准和方法区分未遂犯与不能犯。与日本相同的是,我国刑法也否定了不能犯的可罚性以及不能犯这一情形下的实行行为的着手。据此,在刑法条文没有规定必须着眼于行为人的主观认知来区分未遂犯与不能犯时,有必要从客观的层面对不能犯论加以探讨,这正是不能犯论的日本路径于我国的借鉴意义之所在。     

The Influence of Governors on Veto Override Attempts: A Test of Pivotal Politics

Abstract Using the “switcher” analysis developed by Krehbiel (1998), we examine the ability of Missouri governors to sway legislators on veto override attempts. Our initial results closely mirror Krehbiel's finding that the chief executive successfully achieves influence at and around the veto pivot, but these results change once we take into account the political party of the legislators. Governors are far more likely to influence legislators from their own party, regardless of legislator ideology. Our study provides a rare systematic analysis of gubernatorial influence in the legislative arena, while also contributing to the current debate over preference‐based versus partisan‐based theories of legislatures.     

VimarSeguros诉M／V．SkyReefer案后撤销外国法院管辖条款的尝试

本文主要介绍美国最高法院审理的 Sky Reefer案的判决对美国法院认定提单中外国法院管辖条款的效力产生的重大影响 ,并介绍了 SkyReefer案之前及之后发生的重要案例以认识美国法院对该条款的态度转变过程。最后 ,作者根据实践提出了自己主张的可行办法     

3.9. Attempts at typing ABO blood groups in individual human hairs of less than 4 cm length

Approximately 350 glass samples of known origin, encompassing most of the types of glass likely to be encountered in forensic science casework, have been analysed by inductively coupled plasma-atomic-emission spectrometry. The samples included 123 window glasses, 56 vehicle glasses, 91 container glasses and 58 tableware glasses. The analytical procedure provided the quantitative levels of manganese, iron, magnesium, aluminium and barium in the samples. The data for the elemental concentrations, together with refractive index, are presented in histogram form.