Exploring the consequences of prolonged pretrial incarceration: evidence from a local jurisdiction in the Philippines

Prolonged pretrial incarceration is a key issue facing the criminal justice systems of many developing countries. Detainees stay in jail for years while undergoing trial but are still unconvicted. However, little is known about the consequences of this troubling phenomenon. Informed by relevant prison and criminological theories, this paper analyses jail official data and qualitative interviews from detainees in a local jurisdiction in the Philippines to understand the magnitude and consequences of prolonged pretrial incarceration. Results suggest the emergence of a legally cynical view of the criminal justice system shared by the detainees. These sentiments likely serve as bases for popular opinions that justify use of violence and vigilante justice on offender populations. Implications on judicial and penal reforms in the Philippines are discussed.     

The feasibility and utility of pretrial instruction in the substantive law

Jurors are traditionally instructed in the governing law after trial, just prior to deliberation. Several legal scholars have proposed that instructing jurorsprior to trial would better equip them to evaluate the evidence and integrate it with the law. The most controversial aspect of this position is preinstruction in thesubstantive law. Critics warn that substantive preinstruction may impair jurors' performance and that it poses unreasonable administrative problems. This research surveys the opinions of California Superior Court judges on the advantages and disadvantages of substantive preinstruction to understand the reasons that judges either do or do not preinstruct on substantive issues. The most important advantage to emerge was the potential for a substantive precharge to improve jurors' integration of facts and law. The most critical disadvantages were administrative ones: The judge does not know before trial what substantive instructions are appropriate, and the procedure may cause burdensome delays.     

Criminal justice decision making as a stratification process: The role of race and stratification resources in pretrial release

Our purpose is to bridge the criminal justice and stratification research literatures and to pursue the argument that homologous structural principles stratify allocation processes across central institutions of American society. The principle observed here in the making of bail decisions, as in earlier studies of the allocation of earnings, is that stratification resources operate to the greater advantage of whites than blacks. The operation of this principle is established through the estimation of covariance structure models of pretrial release decisions affecting 5660 defendants in 10 federal courts. Education and income are treated in this study as observed components of a composite construct, stratification resources, which works to the greater advantage of whites. Prior record is also found to operate to the greater advantage of whites. Two further variables, dangerousness and community ties, increase bail severity among blacks and whites. While the effect of community ties has been legally legitimized since the Bail Reform Act of 1966, the effect of dangerousness was not so legitimized until the Bail Reform Act of 1984. However, because our data precede the latter act, they confirm that this act simply reinstitutionalized earlier practice. Meanwhile, our race-specific findings may explain why although this and earlier studies find negligible main effects of race on criminal justice outcomes, black Americans nonetheless perceive more criminal injustice than do whites. In the criminal justice system, as in other spheres of American society, whites receive a better return on their resources, but our findings that the statutory severity of the offense and dangerousness work to the relative disadvantage of white defendants challenges conflict and labeling theory's one-dimensional characterization of black defendant disadvantage.     

Prosecutorial discretion in seeking death: An analysis of racial disparity in the pretrial stages of case processing in a midwestern county

In the 1987 case of McCleskey v. Kemp, the U.S. Supreme Court appeared to foreclose the possibility of challenging racial bias in capital sentencing by using statistically based claims of discrimination. McCleskey, however, does not prevent a challenge to decisions made by particular individuals during the capital punishment process. In this study we examined pretrial decisions made by, or under the direction of, one prosecutor to determine whether those decisions had been influenced by race. We found that homicide cases involving black defendants and white victims fared worse than other racial combinations in all of the pretrial decisions made: They were more likely to result in first-degree murder charges, to be served notice of aggravating circumstances, and to proceed to capital trial.     

Towards a Jurisprudence of Emergency: Colonialism and the Rule of Law

This article revisits an infamous incident in colonial India -- the Amritsar massacre of 1919 -- in order to explore larger questions of the place of martial law and emergency in jurisprudence. By focusing on modes of power in the colonial realm, and the productive role of the colonies in the conception of modern law, it tests the claims of a rule of law and declarations of emergency. The argument tries to show how these two terms are, in fact, relational in theories of colonial discourse and of legal positivism. As such, it reads H.L.A. Hart’s, The Concept of Law and instances from the colonial archive against one another. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

The Rule of Law and Authoritarian Rule: Legal Politics in Sudan

Mark Fathi, Massoud . 2013 . Law's Fragile State: Colonial, Authoritarian, and Humanitarian Legacies in Sudan . Cambridge University Press. Pp. xxii + 265. $109.99 cloth, $34.99 paper. Does the rule of law guarantee peace and democracy, as so many people in the development and governance field believe? What are the historical and sociocultural conditions that shape the way rule of law mechanisms work in practice? Mark Massoud's monograph tracing the changing dimensions of the rule of law in Sudan from its colonial period to the present offers an important perspective on these questions, casting doubt on the simple argument that the rule of law produces democracy and peace. Instead, he shows how colonial and authoritarian rulers used the rule of law to consolidate power and legitimate their rule. In Law's Fragile State: Colonial, Authoritarian, and Humanitarian Legacies in Sudan, Massoud develops the concept of legal politics, arguing that the way the rule of law works varies with the political system in which it is embedded. He concludes that the forms of legal politics that reinforce the power and authority of legal institutions are more likely to sustain an authoritarian state than to bring democratic rule. His analysis is a valuable caution to those who promote the rule of law as the salvation for all. Taking a sociolegal perspective, he shows how it works in practice.     

The Rule of Law and the Rule of Empire: A.V. Dicey in Imperial Context

The idea of the rule of law, more ubiquitous globally today than ever before, owes a lasting debt to the work of Victorian legal theorist A. V. Dicey. But for all of Dicey's influence, little attention has been paid to the imperial entanglements of his thought, including on the rule of law. This article seeks to bring the imperial dimensions of Dicey's thinking about the rule of law into view. On Dicey's account, the rule of law represented a distinctive English civilisational achievement, one that furnished a liberal justification for British imperialism. And yet Dicey was forced to acknowledge that imperial rule at times required arbitrariness and formal inequality at odds with the rule of law. At a moment when the rule of law has once more come to license all sorts of transnational interventions by globally powerful political actors, Dicey's preoccupations and ambivalences are in many ways our own.     

Fringe benefits: The hidden costs of unionization and collective bargaining in corrections

Public Sector Unionization is a phenomenon characterized by rapid growth. Many studies have found, however, that the pay differential between unionized and non-unionized public sector employees is relatively small. This study posits the theory that one possible explanation is that unionized public sector employees are making gains in an area where the cost of concessions is somewhat hidden. Specifically, that unionized public sector employees enjoy a substantial lead in number of fringe benefits. The public sector area chosen for study is that of corrections. A questionnaire was constructed and mailed to all 50 state correctional systems assessing whether or not employees received 35 fringe benefits. The fringe benefits are divided into five categories and reported in tabular form. In addition, the fringe benefits are examined as a composite index and a comparison is then made between unionized and non-unionized employees. The results clearly show that unionized correctional employees have a considerable advantage in the number of fringe benefits enjoyed.     

法治与小康社会

本文以党的十八大报告关于法治与小康社会的基本论述为依据,通过解读十八大报告对小康社会提出的法治建设新要求,即"国家各项工作法治化",创造性地提出了"法治小康"的概念。作者在文章中指出,"法治小康"是对"法治"建设状况与"小康社会"社会发展目标两个方面的期待与要求。作者通过对"法治"价值的基本内涵、"法治化"的最低制度与行为要求,指出了"小康社会"对"法治化"所提出的法治水平最低要求,包括法治"供给"与法治"需求"之间关系的基本适度和平衡;不同法律之间的相互协调,特别是法律制度自身的"统一性";通过贯彻落实依法治国基本方略,来彻底否定人治,弘扬法治,真正地实现"宪法法律至上"的价值目标;通过"法治思维与法治方式"来凝聚成"法治文化"形态的法治精神等等。本文还全面地考察了党的十一届三中全会以来我国"法治"价值内涵的逐渐形成、完善到成熟的发展过程,指出了"依宪治国"、"依宪执政"是实现"小康社会法治化"的必由之路这一重要的法治发展战略目标与机遇。     

法治和德治相结合:治国方略的新探索

中国共产党在８０年的光辉历程中 ,进行着两个伟大的探索。一是找到了一条拯救中国、建设中国的发展道路 ,特别是建设有中国特色社会主义的发展道路。第三代领导集体正带领全党、全国各族人民在这条道路上进行着伟大的实践。二是找到了一个治理国家、管理社会的基本方略。在总结了古今中外正反两面治国经验之后 ,在两代领导集体主要是邓小平的民主法制思想的基础上 ,以江泽民为核心的第三代领导集体提出了“依法治国 ,建设社会主义法治国家”的基本方略。面对新世纪的挑战与机遇 ,近来江泽民同志又提出了法治和德治相结合的重要思想。这是党…     

习近平法治思想中的系统观与法治政府建设

习近平法治思想中蕴含着深刻的系统观,其系统观主要表现为要素联系观、整体布局观、一体建设观、重点突破观。法治政府建设应以习近平法治思想的系统观为引领,一方面在法治系统下加强法治政府整体建设,构建具有政治性、人民性、本土性、一体性、统一性的政府特质,另一方面加强法治政府子系统内部建设,强化其要素建设、协调其各环节、注重特别领域和涉外方面的行政法治建设。     

我国疑罪从无的理论省察及规则重述

疑罪是刑事诉讼在司法实践中必然遭遇且无法绕开的实然性难题。刑事诉讼立法抑或刑事司法或显或隐地借助于从无来摆脱其困境。疑罪从无作为一项诉讼原则被我国理论所倚重,理论上不仅将其视为国外司法活动的惯常做法,在叙事上也将其与证据不足相等同,甚至还将其功能扩展到作为根治冤假错案的惟一途径。坚持疑罪从的无国家存在冤假错案的现实,与我国理论对其功能表达形成相当的反差,特别我国司法实践未遵从理论指导的现实样态,又使得人们对理论阐述衍生迷思并陷入困惑。实质上,疑罪从无是一种分配错误的裁判规则,是法官认定事实时存疑且心证无法形成情形下选择配置错误的一种方式,其本身不是减少错案的防范性规范,在证据理论层面不同于证据不足,理论也不宜作为纠正冤案的基本惟一准则。一般而言,对于有罪与无罪均有证据证明而难分伯仲时,疑罪应当从无;对于达到证明标准或者辩方自愿认罪而法官心证仍未形成,且对有罪无法排除合理怀疑的,此种情形下的疑罪也可以从轻。     

Agency,contract and governance: shifting shapes of accountability in the health care arena

Current ideas about the role of the state include an enthusiasm for mechanisms of "indirect" or "third-party" governance. The health care arena, in which models of indirect governance have a long history, is an important test bed for these ideas. Classically, the arena was marked by trust-based, principal-agent relationships established to overcome information gaps. Over time (and to different degrees across nations), emphasis shifted to contractual relationships assuming relatively well-informed actors and then to performance monitoring and information sharing within complex and loosely coupled networks. In this latest stage, there is a risk that some important features of democratic leadership, and of decision making in the health care arena, will be eclipsed. Accountability mechanisms must clearly locate responsibility for actions and must allow for the exercise of professional judgment.