Canadian Police Mothers and the Boys’ Club: Pregnancy,Maternity Leave,and Returning to Work

This article explores police mothers’ perceptions of their workplace experiences during pregnancy and maternity leave and returning to work. Using Charmaz’s (2014 Charmaz, K. (2014). Constructing grounded theory. London, UK: Sage. [Google Scholar]) constructivist grounded theory with a critical feminist lens, qualitative interviews were conducted with 16 police mothers in the province of Ontario, Canada. Our analysis reveals that policewomen work inordinately hard to prove physical and emotional strength in an attempt to be accepted into policing’s boys’ club; encounter negative workplace responses to pregnancy; are often demoted or reassigned during maternity leave; and need to re-prove themselves as officers upon returning to work. Our research aims to enhance retention and foster changes that will best support police mothers, police organizations, and the communities they serve.     

When Is It Enough for Me to Leave?:Black and Hispanic Women’s Response to Violent Relationships

Based upon a subsample from the National Violence Against Women Survey (NVAWS) this article examines the role of socioeconomic status, relationship investment and psychological abuse in Black and Hispanic women’s decisions to leave or stay in violent relationships. Racial and ethnic differences and similarities were found in the factors related to staying or leaving violent relationships. Black women stayed in violent relationships at a slightly higher rate than Hispanic women. Marital status, presence of other adults in the household, and psychological abuse influenced Black women’s staying/leaving decision. Household income and psychological abuse were factors in whether Hispanic women remained in or exited violent relationships. Recommendations for possible interventions are discussed.     

Does the federal Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 create a hole in ERISA preemption?

ERISA's board preemption provision has survived many challenges to its scope and effect. Now it may have succumbed in the face of a few statements tucked into the legislative history of the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). Language in the legislative history presents the view that the Act was meant to overturn ERISA preemption of state family and medical leave laws. The text of the FMLA contains no corroborating language to support that view. However, at least one court found the statements in the legislative history to be persuasive and ruled that under the FMLA, ERISA does not preempt state family and medical leave laws that regulate ERISA plans. If other courts follow that decision, there will be great implications to employee benefit plan regulation and administration. This article explores the court's decision and the relationship between the FMLA and ERISA preemption.     

Leave or stay? Battered women's decision after intimate partner violence

Battered women's reasons for staying with or leaving their male partners are varied and complex. Using data from the Domestic Violence Experience in Omaha, Nebraska, a discrete-time hazard model was employed to examine a woman's decision based on four factors: financial independence, witness of parental violence, psychological factors, and the police response to the domestic violence call. Findings regarding the first three factors are consistent with previous findings. However, a negative police response did not deter a woman from leaving, which is a different finding from previous studies.     

Blockchain and law: Incompatible codes?

Blockchain has recently joined a long line of technological innovations that have been characterised as disruptive to, and possibly even subversive of, fundamental legal principles. This article looks behind the hype to examine how blockchain might – or might not – be compatible with established legal and regulatory models. Data protection is discussed as an example of an area of law that some have claimed cannot be reconciled with blockchain. Various other conflicts are also identified and concerns about blockchain are placed in the context of wider historical debates about new technologies vs law.     

Anger and Aggression: A New Beginning?

Within our civilian population, Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) has become a major health problem. Consequences of anger and aggression have resulted in incarceration rates which place the United States as the world's leader with 2.2 million people in prisons and jails. The current treatment of anger and aggression is based primarily on theories that were developed in the early 1980s. Advances in neuroscientific knowledge have exponentially added to our understanding of the underlying biological basis and neuroanatomy of violence and aggression. Through a binaural sound‐based non‐verbal intervention, we have found a key to unlock long‐term memory (Reconsolidation) that facilitates rapid remediation of anger and violence issues. Within our Pilot Study findings, a number of our combat‐veterans with Post‐Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) experienced a positive transformation in their capacity to evidence empathy, intimacy and social engagement as contrasted with their prior isolative tendencies. We extrapolate how this intervention might positively impact those engaged in Anger Management (AM) and IPV programs.     

User review portability: Why and how?

User reviews of products on the e-commerce platforms are a critical determinant of inter-platform competition, as a large number of consumers base their purchasing choices on the related reviews written by other users. The network effects between the number of reviews and new users give a sustainable competitive advantage to incumbent platforms. While business literature has recognised the commercial value of the user reviews, legal scholarship has paid little attention to levelling the playing field between incumbents and new e-commerce platforms by exploring the portability of user reviews. This paper bridges this gap. We explore the possibility of porting user reviews through two legal mechanisms—first, traditional Intellectual Property law; second, the new Right to Data Portability (RtDP) as enshrined in the GDPR. After recognising the limitations of these mechanisms in enabling the portability of reviews, we suggest that pure data aggregators, such as Personal Information Management Services (PIMS), are best placed to make user reviews available to multiple platforms.     

File-sharing and downloading: goldmine or minefield?

Legal context: Major copyright owners have been slow to rise to the challengepresented by illegal file-sharing and downloading. In recentyears, they have scored a number of significant Court victoriesagainst file-sharers, but the recent decision in Promusicaev Telefónica, in which the ECJ held that the right tothe protection of industrial property does not necessarily outweighthe right to privacy, indicates that rights holders may benefitfrom a more creative and co-operative approach to file-sharing. Key points: The author provides an analysis of the Promusicae decision,along with a summary of the statutory position in the UK. Thisis also accompanied by a review of the recent internationallitigation landscape on file-sharing and a review of currentattitudes towards addressing illegal filesharing, includingrecent proposals from the British Government and the EuropeanParliament and new models of co-operation between rights holdersand file-sharing service providers. Practical significance: The Promusicae decision will disappoint copyright owners. TheECJ decision left it to Member States to determine whether thereshould be an obligation to disclose personal data in order toprotect copyright, so long as the interpretation of the lawattempts to reconcile the parties' competing rights and principlesand demonstrates proportionality. Copyright owners will, therefore,have to tailor enforcement strategies to individual Member States.This will hamper their ability to take action against individualinfringers efficiently. In addition to litigating against infringers,however, they may benefit from the new models of co-operationbetween copyright owners and file-sharing services which areemerging.     

Russia and Ukraine: Transition or tragedy?

Conclusion The political-criminal nexus that emerged in the post-Soviet period represents a transformation of the relationships which existed in the Soviet period. The division of the property of the Soviet state gave ample possibilities for the political-criminal nexus to obtain significant political assets. They were able to transform their power from one that was rooted in the managerial apparatus of the Soviet state and the consumer economy into one with international dimensions and control of very large shares of the domestic economy. The rise of the political-criminal nexus, while hardly surprising in light of the structure of power relations in the final decades of the Soviet period, precludes full democratization or the rise of a real market economy. In the initial years of the transformation process from a socialist to a post-socialist economy, insufficient attention was paid to the containment of the political-criminal nexus in both Russia and Ukraine. Most Western politicians and international organizations focused on the collapse of communism rather than the rise of these pernicious alternative power relationships. The prognosis for the containment of the political-criminal nexus in either country is rather limited at the moment. Ukraine, however, is at a comparative disadvantage because it has failed to sufficiently acknowledge the high costs of organized crime and its political links. This has been done at the highest levels of Russian government although precious little has been done to address the problem. The Ukraine situation is more difficult because its institutional resources are much more limited than Russia which inherited a disproportionate share of the Soviet Union's financial and institutional resources. With limited civil society and the economic precariousness of much of the population, little can be done to control the problem at its roots. The political-criminal nexus in Russia and Ukraine will remain a serious problem in coming decades. It cannot be ignored in appraising the development of the domestic political situation in either country or determining foreign policy in relation to these two newly independent states.     

Privacy and Search Engines: Forgetting or Contextualizing?

This article considers the much‐criticized ‘right to be forgotten’ in the context of the European Court of Justice's judgment in the Google Spain case. It defends the ‘right to be forgotten’ as a metaphor that can provide us with a better understanding of the particular privacy concerns of the search‐engine age and their interaction with the freedom to access information, and draws on Goffman's idea of ‘information games’ and Nissenbaum's theory of ‘contextual integrity’. While supporting the principles that underpin the judgment, the article rejects the Court's binary approach of ‘forgetting’ versus ‘remembering’ personal information. Instead, it argues that the EU legislator should introduce more nuanced means of addressing modern privacy concerns. By establishing two remedies – ‘delisting’ or ‘reordering’, depending on the nature of the information – online information flows can be adjusted to preserve both the right to privacy and the freedom to access information in more contextually appropriate ways.     

Charities and the 'New Deal': Compact relations?

Charities are playing a significant role in the implementation of the government's New Deal programme. From providing advice on local employment issues to administrative services to work placements, the voluntary sector has been working in public/private partnerships throughout England and Wales. However, despite the government's commitments in the Compact between it and the voluntary sector to support the independence and creativity of the sector, the New Deal for 18-24 year olds reinforces many of the negative sides to the 'contract culture'. This article will examine working relations between charities and the State post Compact, using charities'participation in New Deal as a case study. We will argue that participating charities face a series of potential legal pitfalls. They might also find that, instead of being fully funded through State funds, their participation in the delivery of New Deal is partially funded through their own charitable resources.