The Fall of the Finnish Prison Population

At the beginning of the 1950s, the prisoner rate in Finland was four times higher than in the other Nordic countries and among the highest in Europe. However, the steady decrease that started soon after the Second World War has continued, and in the beginning of the 1990s Finland reached the Nordic level. The paper discusses some backgound factors behind this ''success story''. In addition, the paper examines the relation of prisoner rates and recorded crime. A comparison between the Nordic countries reveals that the major crime trends have been practically similar despite striking differpractices ences in the use of imprisonment. As concluded in the paper, the decrease in the prison population is one of the major victories of Finnish crime policy.     

R. (Martin) v Mahony: the History of a Classical Certiorari Authority

R. (Martin) v Mahony, a decision of the Irish High Court of 1910, continues to be acknowledged by modern textbook writers as a leading authority for the classical rule that certiorari could not correct error of law. This rule, which considerably reduced judicial superintendence of magistrates' courts, had been established by the English court of Queen's Bench in the 1840s. However, the rule was repudiated by the Exchequer Division in Ireland in the late 1880s, which developed a novel, liberal theory of certiorari. This doctrinal innovation, which was used in overturning convictions under the anti-boycotting statute, the Criminal Law and Procedure Act 1887, appalled sections of Lord Salisbury's government, was disapproved of by the English courts, and split the Irish judiciary. The division caused by the doctrine persisted until 1910 when the Irish High Court, having assembled in banc in Martin's Case in order to resolve the impasse, re-established orthodox English doctrine.     

The parliamentary activity of the head of government in Ireland (1923–2000) in comparative perspective

This article examines the parliamentary activity of the head of government in Ireland in selected years from 1923 to 2000 and compares the findings with previous studies of the British and Canadian systems. The results show that, similar to the UK and Canada, there is variation in the level of parliamentary activity in Ireland from one head of government to another. However, contrary to the British and Canadian experience, in the Irish case the data show that the head of government's overall level of parliamentary activity has generally increased over time. In short, Irish heads of government are not necessarily more active than their contemporary British and Canadian counterparts. However, in a number of respects they are certainly more active than their Irish predecessors used to be. These findings suggest that there is now a greater degree of indirect accountability in the Irish system than was previously the case.     

An Electoral Connection in European Parliament Voting

Concerns about endogeneity often complicate attempts to estimate a causal link between public opinion and the voting records of Members of the European Parliament (MEPs). In this article, I overcome this problem by exploiting a rare natural experiment—the surprising and exogenous revelation of Irish public opinion that resulted from Ireland's ratification of the Nice treaty. I find that the Irish electorate's rejection of Nice caused Ireland's European Parliament delegation to vote in a more conservative manner, while its subsequent ratification caused a partial reversal of this shift. My finding of an electoral connection on the Nice treaty casts doubt on the claim that MEPs are largely unconstrained by voter preferences on European issues, despite claims of a democratic deficit in European institutions.     

The Role and Future of the Upper House in Ireland

Ireland is a highly centralised unitary state and thus lacks the standard 'federal' justification of a Senate as a place in which the interests of the constituent states are represented. Nonetheless, Ireland has a Senate under the 1937 Constitution, comprising three types of senator: those indirectly elected from 'vocational' panels, those directly elected by graduates of the two traditional universities and those nominated by the Prime Minister. Its powers are extremely weak. Several attempts to reform the Irish Senate have failed, in large part as a result of an unwillingness of the political elite to change a situation in which politicians who are unsuccessful in election to the lower house can find a political home pending the next election. There does however remain a potential future role for the Senate - if it were to be directly elected and given important jobs to do such as the oversight of EU legislation.     

人道主义干涉在国际法中的地位

北约对南联盟的武力威胁和军事打击使人道主义干涉成为国际社会关注的焦点。本文从界定人道主义干涉的概念入手 ,分析了传统的人道主义干涉 ,认为其并未成为被普遍接受的习惯国际法 ;在研究了联合国成立以来的集体人道主义干涉、特别是 90年代的实践之后 ,进一步指出未经联合国安理会授权的任何单方面人道主义干涉都是非法的。最后 ,作者论述了对人道主义干涉限制的必要性 ,并从规范化的角度提出了人道主义干涉合法化的条件     

鉴定人出庭与专家辅助人角色定位之实证研究

新刑事诉讼法试图改变鉴定人出庭率低的现状,为此完善了鉴定意见审查规则;相应地,新确立的专家辅助人制度也被寄予厚望。从理论上看,保障被告方的对质权应成为上述改革的主要支点。但实证研究显示,鉴定人出庭率并没有因为新刑事诉讼法的实施而显著改善,鉴定人与法官对于鉴定人出庭都缺乏积极性;专家辅助人在法庭上的角色定位是模糊的,其在鉴定人、证人、辩护律师和其他独立的诉讼参与人等角色之间徘徊。应当围绕保障被告方的对质权来完善必要鉴定人出庭制度,在保留职权化和强调中立性的鉴定制度的同时,赋予专家辅助人意见以证据能力,以构建控辩平等的司法鉴定体系。     

The Russian 'Mafiya': Consolidation and Globalisation

Organised crime emerged from the collapse of the Soviet Union unexpectedly quickly and forcefully, rapidly 'colonising' the new economic and political structures. Hyperbole notwithstanding, the 'mafiya' does not 'own' the new Russia, but it is undoubtedly a powerful force, and one which has eagerly exploited new opportunities to cultivate strategic alliances in the global underworld and also to spread across the world. It is presently at an important crossroads at home. It is maturing, as larger, more professional networks eliminate or incorporate the myriad gangs that emerged in the freewheeling days of the early Russian state, and under President Putin it faces a regime embarked upon a state-building programme intolerant of the kind of open anarchy that characterised the early 1990s. However, Russian organised crime remains strikingly disorganised, characterised by loose and highly entrepreneurial networks rather than disciplined hierarchies, and there are still pressures, including the impact of foreign criminal penetration and the growing profits from drug smuggling, which threaten the present status quo.     

Environmental Liability Transfers: An Alternative Approach to Transferring Risk in a Post-Environmental Cost-Cap/Stop-Loss Insurance World

During the 1990's and early 2000's, guaranteed fixed price remediation (GFPR)/Cost Cap insurance contracts offered by national environmental engineering firms and supplemented with environmental cost cap insurance policies offered by the major insurance providers was in its heyday. Engineering and insurance firms formed alliances that secured hundreds of millions of dollars in GFPR/Cost Cap contracts that enabled owners of legacy industrial properties and developers to define and secure the fixed dollar amounts for remediation of known environmental conditions at their properties enabling more accurate estimations of return on investment and facilitating real estate transactions. However, the impact of the “Great Recession”, dollar losses due to unforeseen site conditions, convoluted project management and regulatory factors caused firms providing these services to exit the marketplace. The demand for environmental risk transfers has not diminished and continue afford many benefits to the environment and to a growing local and national economy.     

Young People and Prostitution: Perpetrators in Our Midst

Involvement of young people in prostitution has been an increasingly familiar phenomenon in recent years. This article explores some of the matters related to it during those years. First, it reviews what has been happening during the 1990s. Second, it demonstrates, via a recent case study, some of the issues, debates and controversies that are related to youth prostitution. Third, it examines the latest developments in the United Kingdom before considering some of the international developments and implications for those involved in youth prostitution. Finally, some of the effects of 'new technologies' are considered while contemplating what remains to be done about the battle to combat youth prostitution.     

The mouse that trolled: the long and tortuous history of a gene mutation patent that became an expensive impediment to Alzheimer's research

This case study presents the tale of the academic discovery of a rare mutation for early-onset Alzheimer''s disease that was patented by a sole inventor and licensed to a non-practicing entity (NPE), the Alzheimer''s Institute of America (AIA). Our aims are (1) to relate this story about patents, research tools, and impediments to medical progress, and (2) to inform ongoing debates about how patents affect research, disposition of university inventions, and the distribution of benefits from publicly funded research. We present an account of the hunt for Alzheimer''s genes, their patenting, assignment, and enforcement based on literature, litigation records and judicial decisions. While AIA''s litigation eventually failed, its suits against 18 defendants, including one university, one foundation, and three non-profit organizations were costly in court years, legal fees, and expert time. Reasons for the failure included non-disclosure of co-inventors, State laws on ownership and assignment of university inventions, and enablement. We discuss the policy implications of the litigation, questioning the value of patents in the research ecosystem and the role of NPEs (“patent trolls”) in biotechnological innovation. The case illustrates tactics that may be deployed against NPEs, including, avenues to invalidate patent claims, Authorization and Consent, legislative reforms specifically targeting NPEs, reforms in the America Invents Act, and judicial action and rules for judicial proceedings. In the highly competitive research environment of Alzheimer''s genetics in the 1990s, patents played a minor, subordinate role in spurring innovation. The case produces a mixed message about the patent system. It illustrates many mistakes in how patents were obtained, administered, and enforced, but, eventually, the legal system rectified these mistakes, albeit slowly, laboriously, and at great cost.     

We were conscious of the sort of people we mixed with

In the Republic of Ireland, the family is both a private entity and a construct of the state, and the relationship between family and state is outlined in the Irish constitution. In the Northern Irish state a similar conviction that the family unit is essential to the welfare of society has been implicit in social policy and legislation, as has the classification of women's place. Access to financial resources has played a significant role in situating the family in society and income and social class were inextricably interwoven.

This paper explores how social attitudes have shaped family behaviour and identity in mid twentieth century Ireland, particularly in terms of the part played by women. Class consciousness and definitions of “respectability” are considered, using oral history testimony from a number of women remembering when they were young in the 1930s and 40s. The interviewees accepted the domestic role assigned to them by popular consensus and social policy. Their stories contain frequent references to their reluctance to associate with people whose occupations were judged to be inferior because of the lower status accorded to certain kinds of work. The paper will consider the extent to which legislators and policy makers shared such class awareness and how that might have influenced the shaping of the family unit in Ireland in the middle decades of the twentieth century.     

Disability,Reasonable Accommodation and the Employer's Obligations: Nano Nagle School v Daly

The duty on employers to provide reasonable accommodation is a well-established component of disability discrimination legislation, yet it continues to generate litigation in many jurisdictions. This article examines a recent decision of the Irish Supreme Court concerning the extent of the employer's obligations where, after having acquired an impairment, a worker is no longer able to perform all of the functions of her original job. The case also addressed the question of what procedures should be followed by an employer when considering the provision of reasonable accommodation, as well as the need for courts to justify awards of compensation. The issues in Irish law were intertwined with obligations arising from EU and international law instruments. Therefore, the decision is pertinent for other jurisdictions confronting similar challenges.     

中国公证制度的完善

世界两大公证体系的差别 ,实质上是不同国家对于公证制度功能预期的差异。学习、借鉴国外的经验 ,必须从我国的政治、经济社会制度和公证制度的现实基础出发 ,革除现行以大陆法系的独立、专职的强势公证组织形式与英美法系的弱势公证职能相搭配的体制弊端 ,通过公证立法 ,强化公证职能与法律效力 ,以实现其与强势公证组织形式的内在机制平衡和功能协调 ,赋予并完善我国公证制度在经济与社会生活中的适度干预功能。     

Statistical differences between offender groups.

This paper examines various characteristics of specific groups of offenders in an Irish prison and determines if perceived differences between these groups are statistically valid using some of the techniques available through offender profiling. Statistical differences (χ² ; Fisher's exact test) in some characteristics were found between the various offender groups.     

Economic status,religion, and demography in an Ulster town in the early twentieth century

The paper offers an analysis of the demography of the confessionally-divided and heavily industrialized northern Irish town of Lurgan in the early twentieth century. Its main source is the individual household forms of the Irish population census of 1911. This was the first Irish census to provide household-level data on the number of children born—and the number still surviving—to married couples co-resident at the time of the census. The paper begins by producing standard cross-tabulations of socio-economic status, as represented by literacy, numeracy, occupation, and the labour force participation of married women, by religion. It then presents econometric analyses of female labour force participation, marital fertility, and infant and child mortality. The greater poverty of Catholic households forced a higher proportion of mothers to work outside the home, mainly as unskilled workers in the town's linen mills. The analysis of the marital fertility suggests that confessional affiliation did not influence family size much at this juncture. The analysis of infant and child mortality suggests that religious affiliation was to a significant extent a cloak for living standards and socio-economic advantage.     

Scottish Legal History Group Report 2009

This is the second of two articles examining the relationship between British Imperial statutes and Irish law in the early years of the self-governing Irish state. The present article examines the assertion that the Imperial parliament at Westminster enjoyed the right to legislate for the self-governing Irish state in the 1920s and 1930s. Successive governments in the Irish Free State denied the validity of this legislative power. This article examines a number of Imperial statutes passed between 1922 and 1931 that purported to apply to the Irish Free State. These Imperial statutes were seen as serious threats to Irish legislative sovereignty and have never been recognised by the Irish courts as being part of Irish law. This article examines how the controversial power to pass Imperial statutes for the Irish Free State provoked a serious Anglo–Irish dispute at a delicate stage in bringing the Irish Constitution of 1922 into force. It attempts to illustrate the profound consequences of this dispute for the 1922 Constitution. The article also examines the complex relationship between Irish law and the Statute of Westminster as an Imperial statute. The controversies over Imperial statutes and Irish legislative sovereignty are examined in the context of earlier periods of Irish history and also in the context of recent developments in twenty-first-century Ireland. This permits a consideration of wider questions as to how concepts of national identity influence the acceptance or rejection of particular sources of law.     

最高人民法院关于无效行政行为的探索

最高人民法院从司法审查引发出对无效行政行为制度的探索,虽没有使用“自始没有任何法律效力”和“无效”等概念,却在民事诉讼领域形成了有关基础行为的构成要件,在对行政行为的司法审查中形成了重大明显瑕疵的类型化和明显性判断标准,并形成了排除具有重大明显瑕疵行政行为公定力、相对人拘束力和司法强制执行力的无效行政行为制度雏形,为我国今后立法积累了丰富的素材。从最高人民法院的探索轨迹及其重大明显瑕疵的类型化,可以发现无效行政行为规则的鲜明中国特色,司法的制度生成意义和生成机制。     

Topics in macro-modelling of East European countries in the period of transition

Central and European former Centrally Planned Economies (CPEs) entered a period of transition towards market economies. The evolution is marked by a transition from shortage- to demand-determined economies, associated with the abandonment of price control and the introduction of tight wage control. Stabilization programmes (in Poland from 1990), implementing tough deflationary fiscal and monetary policies, brought about the suppression of hyperinflation. The high adjustment costs — deep recession, high rates of unemployment — are characteristics of the early '90s. The deregulation of the public sector and the building of the private one commenced, and will be a long-lasting process. To meet the changes in economic regimes and mechanisms, the existing models had to be adequately respecified and new models constructed. The large W-5 macromodel for Poland, which covers the final and intermediate demands, had to be extended to introduce the market adjustment mechanisms and, more broadly, the financial flows. To meet the needs of short-term financial policies, new quarterly models had to be built, as, for instance, the WK macromodel for the Polish economy. The paper discusses the major problems of the models' specification under the data constraints.