Medical–Legal Partnerships: How Legal Services can Dramatically Improve Health Outcomes,and the Missed Opportunity to Help Women Seeking Abortions

There are significant health disparities in the United States, with low‐income and minority Americans experiencing higher rates of chronic disease and autoimmune disorders. Research has firmly established that social factors ‐ such as malnutrition, limited access to healthcare, and safe housing ‐ play a critical role in these health disparities. Medical‐Legal Partnerships are a relatively new approach to improving the health of people living in poverty by addressing the root causes of these health‐harming social factors. This article discusses the benefits of Medical‐Legal Partnerships and argues for continued expansion of the model, particularly in pediatricians’ offices, because parents are more likely to seek medical care for their children than themselves. This article further discusses how legal constraints prevent federal funding for Medical‐Legal Partnerships in abortion clinics; this creates a missed opportunity to work with women who are seeking abortions, many of whom face considerable social and economic challenges that could be addressed through legal assistance. This article digs into the legal restrictions that create this missed opportunity and proposes potential solutions to better serve the vulnerable population of abortion‐seeking women.     

The Standardized Field Sobriety Tests: A Review of Scientific and Legal Issues

This article details the history and development of the National Highway and Safety Administration's Standardized Field Sobriety Tests. They are reviewed in terms of relevant scientific, psychometric, and legal issues. It is concluded that the research that supports their use is limited, important confounding variables have not been thoroughly studied, reliability is mediocre, and that their developers and prosecution-oriented publications have oversold the tests. Further, case law since their development has severed the tests from their validation data, so that they are not admissible on the criterion for which they were validated (blood alcohol concentration), and admissible for a criterion for which they were not (mental, physical, or driving impairment). Directions for further research are presented.     

“We Don't Believe in Transitional Justice:” Peace and the Politics of Legal Ideas in Colombia

This article draws on law and society theories on the circulation of legal ideas to explain the instrumentalization of transitional justice in Colombia. Most scholarship explains transitional justice as a theoretical framework or as a set of instruments that helps redress mass violence. In contrast, this study reveals that the idea serves as a placeholder for different political actors to promote their respective interests. Drawing on over fifty interviews, the study suggests that the power of transitional justice lies in its malleability, which is both its strength and its weakness, as those with different political agendas can appropriate the idea in contradictory ways. The findings emphasize that understanding transitional justice requires a turn from abstract analyses that either take the idea for granted or try to define its meaning toward examining how people on the ground understand the idea, and how they translate those understandings into political action.     

British Torture,Then and Now: The Role of the Judges

This article is concerned with the return of torture and other related abusive conduct to the British counter‐insurgency arsenal following the initiation of military engagements in Afghanistan and Iraq in the early 2000s. It focuses primarily on how judges have engaged with the challenges that this torture and abusive conduct have posed, both in their capacity as judges proper and also as appointees to a range of inquiries that have been initiated in the wake of these actions. The article contrasts the post‐2001 work of judges with that during an earlier episode when such state abuse was also evident, Northern Ireland in the 1970s. Arguing that the judiciary has been drawn into the fray much more heavily than in the 1970s and across a great range of platforms, the article analyses this judicial involvement and posits explanations for it against the backdrop of a changing UK politico‐legal culture.     

The Loss of Property Rights and the Construction of Legal Consciousness in Early Socialist Romania (1950–1965)

What happens to legal and rights consciousness when rights previously protected are taken away? In this article, I investigate the process of contesting urban housing nationalization in Romania in the early 1950s in order to understand how the loss of property rights led to new hybrid types of legal consciousness. I find that the construction of socialist legal consciousness was grounded in the interaction between the legally constituted selves of former owners and state bureaucrats who drew from distinct legal and property rights ideologies. This process underscores continuities in legal consciousness even under drastic regime changes, which in turn has implications for the construction of new hegemonic legalities and power regimes. The article is based on extensive document and archival research.     

中国传统法律思想研究的困境与出路

通过作为他者的西方法律文化的扩张和作为主体的中国法律史研究的偏离等方面的剖析,以期找到法律史研究中自我与他者的平衡。探求中国传统法律文化的真知,从精神上疏远自我以及以宽容之心接受他者均是必要的条件,只有在疏远与亲近之间达到同样的协调和均衡时,才能对自我以及作为异质文化的他者做出合理的判断。在对中国传统法律思想进行研究时,我们不仅要得古人之言,更为重要的是得古人之心。对不同的法律文化进行历史分析和文化诠释才是我们法史学研究得以正确进行的必要前提。     

“作为法律资源的天空”——天学视野下君权制约和秩序构建的法律意义

在天学的视野下,中国古人头顶的天空不仅成了“作为文化资源的天空”,而且更是成了“作为法律资源的天空”。古人通过对天象的细致观测,不仅从这个天空中获取了立法、司法等诸多具体的法律资源,更为重要的是,作为法律资源的天空在更深入的层次上表达了对于君主权力之制约和法律秩序之构建的重大法律意义。     

Lawyers and Politics in France, 1814–1950: The State, the Market, and the Public

Throughout the 19th century, lawyers in France were deeply involved in political action to pursue an overriding goal–to become recognized as spokesmen for the public. This strategy governed their history; it explains their brilliant social ascent and their subsequent slow decline. As long as the conflict between state and civil society raged, lawyers were able to we assets–political mobilization, the power of the word, the esteem enjoyed by law–which had allowed them faithfully to embody public opinion in its struggle to limit state powers. From this embodiment of public ideals they derived independence, prestige, and a dominant position in the state. But when the nature of the political regime ceased to be a bone of contention and when public life became organized around other cleavages, lawyers were gradually deprived of their representative function. This marked the beginning of a social decline that became visible between the two world wars and lasted until the 1950s.     

Prospective Person Memory: The Role of Self-Efficacy,Personal Interaction,and Multiple Images in Recognition of Wanted Persons

Prospective person memory refers to recognition of individuals one has been asked to be on the lookout for, such as wanted criminals or missing persons. Past field experiments have tended to find very low rates of identification. The present experiments examine whether multiple pictures, personal interaction, and increased self-efficacy would improve prospective person memory. Participants viewed a mock wanted person alert and were told that if they saw the person depicted in the alert they could win a cash prize. The alert either showed a single picture of the target person or multiple pictures. The target individual then showed up at the dining hall participants routinely had lunch. Some participants had peronal interaction with the target and some participants were led to believe that the likelihood of encounter was quite high. Despite these manipulations, only a small number of participants reported seeing the target individual.     

The Middlemen: The Legal Profession,the Rule of Law,and Authoritarian Regimes

Scholars are increasingly interested in exploring ways to strengthen the rule of law in authoritarian states—especially when deeper political reforms are not attainable. The article contributes to this discussion by revisiting the story of the emergence of the so‐called socialist legality in the communist states of Eastern Europe. Using the historical record from Poland, the author demonstrates a previously unnoticed, yet pivotal, role of legal professionals in facilitating socialist legality's rise to prominence. Using the lenses of Pierre Bourdieu's theory of fields, the article chronicles the evolving dynamic between the legal profession, the authoritarian regime, and society. These observations challenge conventional explanations of the emergence of the rule of law in nondemocratic conditions.     

“十一五”法治建设与法律服务业：规划·规范·规则——第六届中国律师论坛观点集粹

第六届中国律师论坛于9月24日在山西太原举行。这次论坛以“‘十一五’法治建设与法律服务业:规划·规范·规则”为主题,吸引了来自亚太法律协会、国际司法桥梁、香港律政司、香港律师会、澳门法务局、两岸商务法学会及全国律师界、英国、台湾等律师事务所的近一千两百名代表。在本次论坛上律师代表们畅所欲言,围绕主题从律师管理、律师实务、发展战略、律师文化和律师宣传等五个方面展开了热烈的研讨。现将论坛上的精彩观点摘登如下,以飨读者。