Women's views on affirmative action: A new look at preferential treatment

The first part of this paper sketches a profile of women who endorse affirmative action, showing that women who approve of affirmative action identify with a nontraditional image of women and experience discontent when perceiving discrimination on the basis of sex. We also examine the impact of the implementing procedure. Studies conducted with French-Canadian women show that those who fit the above profile readily endorse equal opportunity policies. What about policies that advocate preferential treatment? Early studies indicated that women did not endorse these policies. Recent studies, however, revealed a dramatic change in the pattern of responses. Women who were dissatisfied with their collective situation and identified with a nontraditional image of their group predominantly approved of preferential treatment. What factors triggered this change in attitudes? Are the merit principle and preferential treatment policies truly incompatible? We address these questions in the second part of this paper as well as the implications of this shift in attitudes.     

Technology transfer: A look at the federal sector

An important resource in the search for solutions to serious issues confronting the United States is the science and technology which result from Federally funded research and development. To obtain the optimum return on this significant investment requires that the resultant technology be adapted for secondary utilization and/or be transferred to primary and secondary users. This article describes the magnitude and scope of Federally sponsored research and development and describes the major Federal technology transfer efforts. While present technology transfer efforts, mostly passive, are necessary, there is need for more active methods. The Federal government is seeking ways to improve its technology transfer effort. General agreement on the following actions appears to exist: Stronger support by Federal research and development management, and increased commitment of personnel and funding to the Federal technology transfer effort.     

Gender Crimes Jurisprudence in the ICTR: Positive Developments

Considering the magnitude of rape and other sexual crimes perpetratedduring the Rwandan genocide, gender crimes prosecutions at theInternational Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) have beeninadequate so far. Nonetheless, the ICTR case law must be commendedfor the impulse given, with and after Akayesu, to the criminalizationand punishment of gender-related violence. This paper pointsto the achievements of the ICTR case law in this respect.     

The Crime of Genocide in the ICTR Jurisprudence

The jurisprudence of the International Criminal Tribunal forRwanda (ICTR) has properly focused on the special intent (dolusspecialis) to destroy a group as the distinguishing characteristicof genocide and differentiated it from result-oriented crimes.Although the ICTR has crowned genocide as ‘the crime ofcrimes’, it has simultaneously dethroned it by holdingthat it attracts the same sentence as other humanitarian lawviolations. Nonetheless, ICTR jurisprudence attaches considerableimportance to characterizing the destruction of the Tutsi asgenocide as distinct from crimes against humanity. Because theTutsi cannot be readily distinguished as one of the protectedgroups under the Genocide Convention, Trial Chambers have goneto great lengths to characterize them as an ‘ethnic’group in order to justify the label of genocide.     

A new look at equity and outcomes as determinants of satisfaction in close personal relationships

This research reexamined the previously established relation between allocation of resources and satisfaction in close relationships. Using self-report data from two different samples, undergraduate students and married couples, we replicated and extended the procedure employed in past studies to assess the relative strength of equity, equality, and own outcomes as predictors of relationship satisfaction. As expected the two samples differed in the relative strength of the correlates of satisfaction. The married couples revealed different predictors of satisfaction depending upon which of two forms their relationship had taken. Those who reported being in an identity (communal) relationship were most satisfied when they provided high inputs to enhance their partner's outcomes, whereas those in an exchange relation were more responsive to the outcomes they received. The dating students, whether they reported being in an identity or exchange relation, were most satisfied when their own outcomes were maximized. The results also suggested methodological limitations in the earlier studies that had compared the relative association with satisfaction of an unreliable measure of equity with minimal variance and a highly reliable measure of outcomes with considerably greater variance. The previously established strong association between the person's satisfaction and their own outcomes in a close relationship was found to be dependent upon the nature of the sample and the relative reliability of the correlates employed in the regression analyses.     

The socio-legal acceptance of new technologies: a close look at artificial insemination

Heated debates often surround the introduction of an important new technology into society, as exemplified by current controversies surrounding human cloning and privacy protection on the Internet. Underlying these controversies are disruptions to central socio-legal values caused by these new technologies. Whether new technologies will eventually be accepted by society is often contingent on the reaction of the legal system. This mandates the formulation of a conceptual framework for understanding and structuring the way the law should react in cases surrounding the adoption of new technologies. By using the case study of artificial insemination this Article develops the tools for structuring the legal role in the acceptance process of new technologies. The three-century controversy surrounding the innovation of artificial insemination results from the innovations' disruption of the socio-legal value of the family. Artificial Insemination--although invented in the eighteenth-century--was rarely used until the 1930s, and only legalized in the 1960s. Its application to surrogacy and its use by unmarried women extends the controversy into the twenty-first century. The case study demonstrates the nature of the relationship among the technological, social and legal acceptance processes of new technologies, and analyzes the legal acceptance debate. The conceptual framework produced is useful in understanding and structuring the legal role in current debates surrounding the introduction and acceptance of new technologies.     

Revisiting Disclosure Obligations at the ICTR and its Implications for the Rights of the Accused

Disclosure obligations are an important and contentious topicin the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda jurisprudencethat directly implicates the right of the accused to a fairtrial. International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda jurisprudencehas historically favoured disclosure of witness statements underRule 66(A)(ii); however, the possibility of disclosure underRule 68 should also be considered. Due to the practical difficultyfor the defence to obtain witness statements that may be materialto its case, the author argues that the Tribunal should reconsiderthe jurisprudence on the topic of disclosure to work towardsa more equitable disclosure regime under Rule 68.     

The concept of harm reconceived: A different look at wrongful life

In wrongful life litigation a congenitally impaired child brings suit against those, usually physicians, whose negligence caused him to be born into his suffering existence. A key conceptual question is whether we can predicate “harm” in such cases. While a few courts have permitted it, many courts deny that we can, and thus have refused these children standing to sue. In this article the author examines the wrongful life cases and literature enroute to a broader consideration of harm. This literature, and philosophical discussions of harm generally, rely on a definition which ascribes harm by comparing an individual's current condition with that in which he would otherwise have been, but for the allegedly harmful event. The author shows this definition to be conceptually and morally flawed. A superior general definition is offered which, when then applied to wrongful life cases, shows that we can easily ascribe harm in these cases and can find clear potential for tort liability.     

Victim/witness noncooperation: A second look at a persistent phenomenon

During the last decade, numerous programs were established to increase the alarmingly low rate of cooperation of victim/witnesses with lower criminal court officials. It is argued that these programs were largely unsuccessful because they were based on assumptions about the motives of victim/witnesses and about the effect of their cooperation on case outcomes which were only partially correct. The article attempts to explain noncooperation by integrating what is known about the desires and expectations of victim/witnesses from recent empirical studies with what is known about the nature of the adjudication process from organizational studies of criminal courts. The article concludes that victim/witness noncooperation may not pose the major obstacle to prosecution that has been alleged, but that it is indicative of the failure of criminal courts to recognize that victim/witnesses have a legitimate interest in the adjudication process.     

Courting Rwanda: The Promises and Pitfalls of the ICTR Outreach Programme

This article aims to assess the contribution of the OutreachProgramme at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda(ICTR). The author introduces and discusses two general approachesor models of outreach that international criminal tribunalsmay pursue. The transparency model of outreach seeks to makea tribunal's opaque legal process more visible by disseminatingbasic information about the court to communities recoveringfrom human rights abuses. The engagement model goes beyond onlyinforming these communities by facilitating frequent and extensivetribunal interaction and dialogue through seminars, town hallpresentations, and training of legal professionals. Despitesome progress with limited resources, the efforts of the OutreachProgramme of the ICTR to engage the Rwandan population and tomake the Tribunal more transparent have been ineffective. Thearticle recommends that the ICTR bolster its outreach effortsby helping to train Rwanda's judiciary, appointing more Rwandansto serve in positions of authority at the Tribunal, and engagingdomestic and international non-governmental organizations inoutreach programme partnerships.