The Threat of the Thief: Who Has Normative Influence in Georgian Society?

This piece gives an account of the Georgian government's recent attempts to crackdown on the institution of thieves-in-law [vory-v-zakone] within Georgian society. The events surrounding the problematisation of the thieves-in-law are examined and different answers are offered to the underlying question of the article: what threat does this subversive group pose to the government? It is argued that the vory do not represent a potential criminal revolution but are victims of a resurgent state producing a politics of law that seeks to stamp out subverting influences within society. The thieves' world represents an alternative moral order which is attractive in a country which suffers from acute alienated statehood. Thus the fight against the vory should be understood as a battle to win back the hearts of the Georgian people for the state and for the law.     

Dirt Is a Pollutant! Water Is,Too … How to Create Clarity in Environmental Insurance Coverage and Lower the Cost of Environmental Risks

General confusion about what is or could be an excluded-pollutant in property and liability insurance policies has created a situation where insurance agents and brokers cannot accurately advise their customers on how to insure environmental risks. Pollution exclusions are intended to exclude pollution-related claims. Over one hundred different environmental insurances have been designed to fill the coverage gaps created by pollution exclusions. By ignoring the fundamental purpose of pollution exclusions and the broad range of environmental insurance policies that are available, many environmental damage claims are needlessly uninsured today.     

Who is ready to climb the hill? The effect of legislative activity on promotion to higher offices in Chile

Previous research suggests that bill initiation is a mechanism used by legislators to foster personal votes. This article puts forward a theory whereby legislative activity is understood as a form of party service. Bill initiation records are used by parties to inform their decisions on who is ready to be promoted. The theory is evaluated using an original data-set from the Chilean Chamber of Deputies. Our empirical findings make a strong case for the hypothesis according to which parties reward those deputies who have shown to be effective legislators.     

Law school accreditation in the New Independent States of the former Soviet Union: what steps for the future?

Legal education reform has recently emerged as a key component in the rule of law promotion in the former Soviet Union republics,1 1. See Jane M. Picker & Sidney Picker, Jr, Educating Russia's future lawyers—any role for the United States? (2000) 33 Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law 17, 18–19, arguing that the core building block of the rule of law rests on legal education. See John M. Burman, The role of clinical legal education in developing the rule of law in Russia (2002) Wyoming Law Review at 90, 101, stating that reform of the legal education is the most effective way of creating a culture of law. See Peter J. Sahlas & Carl Chastenay, Russian legal education: post-communist stagnation or revival? (1998) 48 Journal of Legal Education 194 at 194, arguing that “a system of legal education can do more than teach the society's rules to successive generations: it can inspire values of justice and promote social progress”. See also Mark Dietrich, Three foundations of the rule of law: education, advocacy and judicial reform, in: Law in Transition (London, EBRD, Autumn 2002), at p. 57, available at: http://www.ebrd.com/ pubs/law/lit/english/aut02.pdf. The author points out that reform of legal education is the single most important reform to be undertaken in the NIS region. If law students are not taught how to think critically, question authority and be guided by the ethical values of the profession while in law school, it is difficult to expect that they will become honest advocates, judges or prosecutors in the future. View all notes now sovereign and independent states collectively known, for the purpose of this paper, as the New Independent States (NIS). Scholarly articles and international forums2 2. See Europe and Central Asia Division of the Legal Department, World Bank, Selected Issues (2001) Challenges and Strategies. The World Bank Forum on Legal and Judicial Reform in Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union 33; see also Dietrich, op. cit., at 58. View all notes suggest that legal education reform could be advanced by developing and implementing accreditation procedures for law schools, updating law school curricula, establishing transparent and rigorous grading standards, and retraining the law faculty. This paper discusses just one of these measures, namely the development and implementation of quality evaluation and accreditation procedures for law schools in the NIS region. In order to explore this issue in detail, the paper has been structured into six parts.

?Part I provides a brief overview of legal education in the Soviet Union, thus placing the issues tackled in this paper into a historical perspective. Part II describes the main changes occurring in the higher education system in general and legal education in particular in the NIS region after 1991, emphasising new challenges that privatisation of the higher education sector posed to the quality of legal education, thus triggering an urgent need for quality-assurance and accreditation mechanisms. The currently existent NIS practices of licensing, evaluation and accreditation of academic institutions, including law faculties within multi-disciplinary academic institutions, as well as separate law schools, are described in Part III. Parts IV and V adopt a comparative approach to accreditation by providing an overview of accreditation procedures in the United States, and the recent initiative and trends in quality evaluation and accreditation in Western Europe. Drawing upon the information provided in Parts I–V, Part VI offers concrete suggestions and recommendations for improving the implementation of accreditation procedures in the NIS region. The materials contained herein represent the opinions of the author and editors and should not be construed to be the view of either the American Bar Association or the Central European and Eurasian Law Initiative. The views expressed herein have not been approved by the House of Delegates or the Board of Governors of the ABA and, accordingly, should not be construed as representing the policy of the ABA. Nothing contained in this report is to be considered as the rendering of legal advice for specific cases, and readers are responsible for obtaining such advice from their own legal counsel. This report is intended for educational and informational purposes only. Research performed on Westlaw country of West Group. View all notes     

Variations in Member States’ Preliminary References to the Court of Justice—Are Structural Factors (Part of) the Explanation?

The preliminary reference procedure in Article 267 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), which enables national courts to request the Court of Justice to provide a ruling on the interpretation or validity of an EU legal act, is widely considered to be the jewel in the crown of EU law. When considering the number of references from different Member States, it will become immediately apparent that there are considerable variations. This article examines to what extent these variations may be explained by three structural factors, namely (1) population size, (2) willingness to litigate and (3) Member State compliance with EU law. It is concluded that some—but not all—of the variations in number of references from Member State judiciaries may be attributed to structural factors rather than being merely a reflection of different Member State courts’ willingness to make use of Article 267 TFEU on such references (the so‐called behavioural factors).     

Can Courtroom Behavior Predict Recidivism? An Assessment of the Courtroom Behavior Check List for Women Presenting in Drug Court

The U.S. criminal justice system is overwhelmed with individuals affected by substance use and psychiatric disorders often co-morbid with criminal behavior. Locally, an evaluation of St. Louis downtown municipal ordinance violators found that 49 % of offenders reported mental health problems, 30 % reported alcohol-related problems, 86 % had a history of prior arrests and 71 % had failed to appear in the St. Louis City Municipal Court within the previous 2 years (Downtown St. Louis Community Court Evaluation Report, St. Louis, MO). These compounded conditions and their corresponding treatment needs are costly and complicate correctional rehabilitation efforts. Drug courts have emerged as alternative ‘therapeutic jurisprudence’ avenues designed to reduce drug use and associated individual risk behaviors. Unfortunately, there are few evidence-based measures available for rapid, onsite evaluation of an individuals’ potential for success with drug court. A new assessment tool, the Courtroom Behavior Check List (CRBCL), was developed to measure behavioral compliance in court as a predictor of future behavior, as we believed that behavior in court would predict future criminal behavior. We found scores on the CRBCL declined (e.g., improved) among the 127 women interviewed from baseline through the 8-month follow-up, and that a poorer score predicted re-arrest for a criminal offense (OR?=?2.84; 95 % CI 1.20–6.69). Based upon these findings, the CRBCL may be a useful tool to measure the likelihood of re-offending among women in drug court. Policy implications and directions for future research are discussed.     

Pressing for Sentence? An Examination of the New Zealand Crown Prosecutor’s Role in Sentencing

Prosecutors are among the most powerful actors in any criminal justice system. Their exercise of discretion, however, has not been subjected to the same level of public and empirical scrutiny as other parts of the criminal justice system. To deepen understanding, I empirically explore for the first time the form, function and limits of the New Zealand Crown Prosecutor’s role at the sentencing stage of the criminal justice process. Semi-structured interviews of a non-representative sample of ten Crown Prosecutors are analysed using Hawkins’ framework of “surround”, “field” and “frame”. Findings suggest that whilst New Zealand’s regime shares history, principles, and structural features with English and Australian regimes, it goes further to permit Crown Prosecutors a more assertive role in sentencing. In the ‘surround’, populist and managerial pressures create frustration, strain, and concern. Changes to funding models suggest the potential for unjust sentencing outcomes has increased. The “surround” also intrudes upon and transforms decision-making “frames”. The opinions and presence of stakeholders influences decisions and practices at office and individual levels. Justice may be reactive, forward-looking, or negotiated depending on the particular mix of individuals involved – something accentuated by the regime’s privatised and decentralised form. Findings also suggest that Crown Prosecutors “frame” their role in occupational terms. The lack of interest of universities, professional bodies, and law and policy-makers in offering or requiring prosecutorial training before entry to the role is influential. This renders decision-making more susceptible to pressures in the “surround” and “field”, and increases variation in decision-making “frames”.     

What About the Parents? Changes in and Correlates of Parents’ Discrete Emotional Reactions to their Child’s Trauma in Trauma Therapy

Journal of Family Violence - Parents experience differentiated emotions after learning of their child’s abuse; however, little is known about the effect of trauma therapy on these...     

Who is Qualified to Provide Expert Testimony on the Psychological Fitness for Duty of a Police Officer? A Guide for Agencies,Lawyers and Hearing Officers

The Rules of Evidence in the Federal Courts and most State Courts are lenient in qualifying witnesses as experts. This article looks at the most common standard for determining who is qualified to testify as an expert regarding the psychological fitness for duty of a serving police officer. The article then discusses key areas that agencies, attorneys and hearing officers should focus on in determining the credibility of an expert’s testimony. Finally, this paper suggests trial preparation techniques for counsel, should a disputed fitness evaluation become involved in litigation.     

Fingerprint comparison evidence has been under sustained attack in the United States of America for the last number of years: Is the critique with regard to reliability sufficiently penetrating to warrant the exclusion of this valuable evidence?

The decision in Daubert v Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals 509 US 579 (1993) brought about renewed attention to and scrutiny of fingerprint comparison evidence in the United States of America. In terms of the decision courts were to act as the gatekeepers with respect to the admissibility of scientific expert evidence. This article describes these events and investigates the grounds upon which challenges were made to fingerprint comparison evidence in the courts, as well as the position that was taken by the courts. The article also considers the fundamental test for the admission of expert evidence, and whether the critique pointed out by the defendants in the cases with regard to reliability are sufficiently penetrating to warrant the exclusion of fingerprint comparison evidence.