Truancy and the Prosecution of Parents: An Unfair Burden on Mothers?

This article considers the development and use of the law regulating the prosecution of parents under section 444 of the Education Act 1996, in the broader context of legislation and policy initiatives concerned with the governance of parental responsibility. It explores the ways in which the power to prosecute parents has been used by local educational authorities (LEAs) and interpreted by the courts. The article critically analyses the manner in which the powers emphasise punishment and retribution in the context of the social moralisation of ‘flawed’ parents; pay insufficient regard to the effects of parental responsibility laws on low‐income, single parent families; represent an attempt to impose a simple solution on to a complex socio‐economic problem; and amplify the scope for mothers to be made the subject of criminal justice interventions. It is argued that the prosecution of parents imposes an unfair burden on mothers and, in particular, single parent mothers.     

Legislation and educational change: the struggle for social justice and quality in China's compulsory schooling

Whether a law can bring about change has been an important topic of debate in the literatures of law, sociology and education. With reference to the 2006 revision of compulsory schooling legislation in China, this article examines the functions and limits of the use of law to effect educational change. It explores why and how China continues to rely on instrumental use of the law to bring about change and rectify problems that the previous legislation did not. The article shows that law can be used as a tool for social justice that helps defend children's right to access basic quality education. However, the realization of legislative change requires favourable economic, social and/or cultural conditions, the support of extra-legal means and a concerted effort by all actors in interpreting and enforcing the law.     

概念分析与微观论证:中国法学的一个未来面向——接着《中国法学向何处去》讲

近一年来,学界围绕邓正来的长文<中国法学向何处去>展开了一场大讨论.冷静分析现有的这些讨论,我们就会发现其更多地似乎只是"照着讲",即更多关注的是"中国法学向何处去"这个问题本身;而相对地缺乏另一种对待经典的态度--"接着讲"的态度.按照这种态度,我们必须认真地回应、回答"中国法学到底应该向哪儿去"这个问题,而不仅仅是继续开放出这个问题的各个面向和层次.     

Education law: Excluding the child

Education law in England and Wales has remained largely immune from the general trend in social welfare legislation to accord children and young people of independence of status and provide opportunities for their participation in some of the decisions that relate to them. This article examines the extent of the denial of children's rights in this context. It focuses, in particular, on the areas of special educational needs and exclusion from school, including the relevant appeal processes. It sees, in developments in Scottish legislation, more positive signs and expresses the hope that similar progress will follow south of the border.     

Unveiling a role for the EU? The ‘headscarf controversy’ in European schools

Many European countries have introduced laws and policies which proscribe religious clothing in public educational institutions. The European Convention on Human Rights has been deployed to uphold such actions, the European Court of Human Rights recognising that States should be able to limit the manifestation of religious beliefs. National courts considering the matter in terms of religious freedom (as opposed to discrimination) have reached similar conclusions. Most affected States are members of the European Union as well as the Council of Europe. This article will argue that it is more likely that European Union law could be engaged by an aggrieved teacher to challenge national law.     

Government and education news

Abstract

FOR EIGHT years Cornell's Legal Information Institute has offered online law courses to students at other US law schools. Using a paced asynchronous approach, with streaming audio linked to referenced Web materials, interactive problems, online discussion/ and a series of written exercises, the courses offer a successful model of how law schools can pool teaching resources and students to enrich curricula. This article reports on and explains the choices, challenges, student response, and educational outcomes of this ongoing experiment, organised around ten frequently asked questions. It also ventures some cautious conclusions about the near‐term prospects for distance learning in US legal education, noting both inhibiting forces, including importantly constraints imposed by accreditation rules, and recent grounds for optimism.     

论国际行政法的规范构成

国际行政法是全球化背景下正在产生、成型的全新法律部门,目前已经逐渐引起国内外学界的重视,对其基本范畴的研究已经有一定的成果.通过类比行政法体系的三种类型对国际行政法的规范构成展开分析,并尝试将国际行政法规范分为国际组织行政法、国际实体行政法以及国际程序行政法.在没有其他参照物的情况下,这种以传统行政法的若干概念工具来解构国际行政法的规范构成的尝试有益于对这个法域的进一步研究.     

反思“醉驾”入罪——规范理解与情境预防

面对社会上日益严重的醉酒驾驶问题,《刑法修正案八》规定了＂危险驾驶罪＂,有关醉驾的刑法规范主要体现了刑法保护法益前移与抽象危险犯的立法精神。而用刑法手段减少风险的发生、确保交通安全并不能有效达至理想效果,超越规范层面的惩罚醉驾的政策与风险防治因素为情境预防理论应用于保障社会公共安全问题提供了可寻的依据。从具体犯罪的预防出发思考减少行为人实施犯罪的机会,应用情境预防理论控制醉驾的发生是可行的新路径。     

Legalizing education: the role of law in the regulation and deregulation of China's private education

This article explores the role of law in shaping the growth of private education, as a part of educational reforms in response to social change in the People's Republic of China (PRC) after the 1980s. This paper argues that law acts as a new social game rule, one used by the state to govern, regulate and promote new relations and interactions between state and non-state players in educational reform and to rectify irregularities generated by the players. The process of legislation reveals the tension between regulation and deregulation of the relationship between private educational institutions and government. This paper concludes by offering an understanding on the role of law as both a means and an end in shaping educational reform in the face of ongoing social changes.     

Criminal Law beyond the State: The European Model

This article will analyse two models of criminal law beyond the State, which are here termed ‘eunomic’ and ‘dialogic’. It will then focus on one case study, European criminal law, which was inherently ‘dialogic’ until the last decade of the past century but has now quite unique features. In accordance with classic liberal views, criminal law has always been conceptualised as one of the most salient attributes of the sovereign State. The monopoly on the use of violence was to be legitimised by the State's concern for the sphere of autonomy of the individual. It is submitted in this article that it is precisely this condition that is lacking in the current European model, which promotes security‐oriented paradigms of self‐fulfilment and effectiveness. However, criminal law, if properly conceived, could in theory function as a powerful vehicle of integration.     

Embedding employability skills for the legal professionals of the future

This article provides a case study on embedding employability skills into law courses at one higher education institution. The aim of the project was to further embed employability skills within curriculum delivery as part of a holistic student skills development strategy. The authors used the four-stage process, suggested by the Higher Education Academy’s Framework on Embedding Employability in Higher Education to design the project: defining employability, reviewing and mapping current employability skills, prioritising actions and measuring impact. The authors draw out three ways in which the project has wider potential relevance. From an educational theory perspective, the project represents a way to embed employability skills in a Framework for Higher Education Qualifications level appropriate way, through reference to Biggs’ taxonomy of learning. For higher education institutions, the project is particularly topical in light of the rapidly changing regulatory landscape that is becoming increasingly skills focused in nature. It is suggested that embedding employability in law courses now will assist future institutional engagement with the potentially new route to qualifying as a solicitor through the Solicitors Qualifying Examination. Individual law teachers also reported benefits to embedding employability skills in tutorial sessions from a classroom management perspective.     

论促进和保护受教育权的国际标准

从现有国际人权法渊源中确立促进和保护受教育权的国际标准可谓构成国际人权法的新发展 ,而从国际人权上对受教育权作出识别是确定上述标准的前提。本文根据有关受教育权的主要国际文件的统一化进程并结合国际社会的实践将受教育权归类为基本教育权、初等教育权、中等教育权、高等教育权和教育选择权 ,并依据一系列国际文件对世界各国促进和保护受教育权的义务性安排建立起国际社会促进和保护各类受教育权的国际标准模型 ,同时揭示了上述国际标准模型在适用过程中的特性。     

Indigenous Peoples and Family Law: Issues in Aotearoa/New Zealand

This article provides a glimpse into how historical and currentlegislation has attempted to grapple with the practice of customaryfamily law by the indigenous peoples of Aotearoa/New Zealand.It focuses on examining family law in two contexts: marriageand property ownership; and children and legal parenthood. Theanalysis provides an interesting insight into the interplaybetween customary law and statute law. The impact of colonizationupon indigenous peoples and the practice of their law, and howgovernments today choose to recognize and provide for indigenouspeoples is a policy issue prevalent in many of the British colonizedlands. This article concludes that a comprehensive review ofthe nature and extent to which legislation should provide forMaori customary law is required in Aotearoa/New Zealand. Thehaphazard approach of current years is insufficient.     

The Application of International Legal Norms Over Time: The Second Branch of Intertemporal Law

Intertemporal law governs the applicability of international legal norms ratione temporis. According to often used terminology, intertemporal law has two different branches. This article provides clarification of the so-called ‘second branch of intertemporal law’. It does so by refuting two commonly held assumptions. First, as established in section 2 of the article, the second branch of intertemporal law is not an exception to the first branch of that law. It cannot be, since both branches of intertemporal law centre on the same legal principle: an action or a factual state of affairs must be assessed in the light of the law which is contemporary with it. Secondly, as implicated by the line of reasoning in section 2, and further confirmed by the inferential evidence cited in section 3, the practical relevance of the second branch of intertemporal law is not confined to the application of the law on the acquisition to territory. It pertains to a more widely defined group of norms in international law.

     

论1989年《环境保护法》之历史功绩与历史局限性

198 9年《环境保护法》作为我国环境保护的基本法 ,在我国环境保护事业的发展中发挥了巨大的作用 ,也为我国法律体系的发展与完善作出了应有的贡献。但是 ,随着时代的发展 ,它也有着不可避免的历史局限性。因此 ,适时修订《环境保护法》已是大势所趋。     

Violence in Fascist Criminal Law Discourse: War, Repression and Anti-Democracy

This article constructs a critical historical, political and theoretical analysis of the essence of Fascist criminal law discourse in terms of the violence that shaped and characterised it. The article examines the significance of violence in key declarations about the role and purpose of criminal law by Alfredo Rocco, Fascist Minister of Justice and leading ideologue, in his principal speech on the final draft of the 1930 Italian Penal Code. It is grounded on the premise that criminal law is particularly significant for understanding the relationship between State power and individuals, and so what was distinctive about Fascist thinking in this regard. The article analyses Rocco’s declarations as a discourse in order to highlight their contextual foundations, construction and ideological connections. It argues that the core theme of that discourse is violence, which has three principal dimensions: a close historical and rhetorical connection with war, a focus on repressive and intimidatory force, and a paramount concern with subordinating individuals to State interests. The article then uses this analysis to develop a theoretical reading of the nexus between criminal law and violence in Fascism, in terms of its foundations and reversal of ends and means. The article thus provides an original perspective on Fascism and criminal law, which it argues is important for critical engagement with criminal law discourse in our democracies today.     

Using the Wrong Policy Tools: Education,Charity, and Public Benefit

A recent decision on the application of public benefit under the Charities Act 2006 sidestepped the political debate surrounding the charitable status of independent fee‐charging schools. The broader political context nevertheless underscores the legislative reforms, and this article questions whether the new statutory public benefit requirement has utility as a welfare policy tool in the field of education. It examines the public benefit requirement in charity law against the backdrop of government policy towards education and the broader political agenda for a mixed economy of welfare provision, and argues that the difficulties Labour faced in developing its education policies were replicated in the application of the post‐Act public benefit requirement to fee‐charging schools. As a result, achieving broader policy goals for widening educational opportunity through public benefit was almost impossible given the regulatory framework and the principles upon which charity law is founded.     

Do We Need Unicorns When We Have Law?

Abstract.  Theoretical justifications of human rights have been troubled by many criticisms and objections. It has been objected that the source of human rights is unclear as is the meaning attached to human rights. Yet today many human rights have been adopted in positive law. Law students today need to learn about this positive law of human rights and may consider that those debates in human rights theory are pointless. This article examines the extent to which the positive law of human rights answers these questions satisfactorily. It concludes that positive law offers several important answers to these criticisms, but suggests they cannot replace the need for a normative justification. The article concludes that approaches which integrate theory and positive law are fruitful avenues of inquiry.     

Legal liability of universities for students

This article involves analysis of the nature of the legal relationship between universities and their students. The development of a general perception that students are consumers of services provided by the university or their clients responsible for paying their own fees has led to an increased likelihood of students seeking legal redress for inadequacies in their educational experience. Recognition of the contractual basis of the arrangement and the resultant legal remedy for breach of the contractual terms has provided the means by which rights can be enforced. However, there are also a number of areas of law (under statute and the common law) which can be utilised for this purpose. These areas are summarised and the difficulties associated with their utilisation identified. The need to reform the system of student complaints in universities and the legal framework for enforcing their legal rights is discussed and recommendations put forward.