Terrorism,Crime, and Transformation

This article argues that some of today's terrorist groups have transformed into transnational criminal organization (TCO) who are more interested in profits than politics. This dynamic has important implications for policymakers as some traditional, politically motivated terrorist groups further profit-minded agencies under a political banner. The author argues that there are different degrees of transformation; some terrorists commit criminal acts to support political operations, while others view profit-driven criminal acts as their end game. The articles further argues that unlike some observers suggest, TCOs and terrorist groups will not cooperate with each other to advance aims and interests, instead utilizing their "in-house" capabilities to undertake criminal or political acts.     

The Legal Education and Training Review: regulating socio-legal and liberal legal education?

The Legal Education and Training Review (LETR) which reported in June 2013 conceded that undergraduate law degrees are generally outside the remit of the review other than when there is a direct impact on the provision of legal services. On first glance therefore the review has few implications for those of us interested in delivering a liberal legal education and developing socio-legal approaches to law and legal study. However, on closer reading, the report contains a number of suggestions which, if taken up by the regulators, have significant potential to change law degrees, even if regulation remains “light touch”. This article explores those issues with a particular focus on the implications for liberal law degrees and socio-legal approaches to law teaching. In particular the article will explore issues around possible changes to foundation subjects; the creation of a framework of learning outcomes; the possible strengthening of legal writing and research in the curriculum and the opportunities offered for the introduction of more socio-legal material; and the trickle-down effect likely to be felt by providers of undergraduate law degrees of changes in regulation of legal services and as a result of student, employer and other stakeholder expectations.     

Assessing the health behaviors of African American emerging adults

The purpose of this article was to assess the overall health behaviors of African American emerging adults who live in a Midwestern city. Two hundred participants, ages 18-25, completed a 129-item survey. Results indicate that African American emerging adults are engaged in relatively healthy behaviors (i.e., physical activity, low substance use). The results also showed that within the emerging adult developmental period, there are differences in behavior for those who are in the younger (18-20) versus those that are older (21-25) in the developmental period. Limitations, future research, and implications for practice will also be discussed.     

On the looting of nations

We develop a dynamic discrete choice model of an unchecked ruler making decisions regarding the development of a resource rich country. Resources serve as collateral and facilitate the acquisition of loans. The ruler chooses either to stay in power while facing the risk of being ousted, or loot the country??s riches by liquefying the resources through lending. We show that unstructured lending from international credit markets can create incentives to loot the country; and an enhanced likelihood of looting causes greater political instability, and diminishes growth. Using a treatment effects model, we find evidence that supports our predictions.     

Non-custodial Dispositions and the Politics of Sentencing

In 2012, the Government of Victoria, Australia, introduced a new form of non-custodial disposition known as the “community correction order” (“CCO”). In 2014, the Victorian Court of Appeal was asked to provide guidance to sentencing courts so that CCOs could fulfil their potential as an alternative to imprisonment. The Court’s guideline judgment concluded that the advent of the CCO had the potential to transform sentencing in Victoria but that this would depend upon the community being properly informed about the capacity of a CCO to operate punitively, as well as to promote rehabilitation. This did not occur, however, and there was strident criticism of the judgment as authorising inadequate punishment of serious offences. Although sentencing courts have utilised the CCO appropriately in the light of the judgment, the Government recently legislated to restrict its availability.     

From the ashes of the Great Kantō Earthquake: the Tokyo imperial university settlement

Abstract:

In 1884, an Anglican clergyman and staff and students from Oxford University set up a ‘settlement house’ in the East End of London. Conceiving poverty in moral and aspirational terms, their goal was to live with the poor to raise their cultural standards, and thus pull them out of the cycle of destitution. The idea soon spread to the United States. That the Settlement movement would travel across the Atlantic is no surprise: there was rich exchange between the UK and US in the late nineteenth century, and the values underpinning the movement were shared. But what is perhaps less expected is that the Settlement movement also travelled to Japan where it was put into practice by a range of governmental and non-government actors including students at Tokyo Imperial University in the wake of the 1923 Great Kantō Earthquake. The movement then flourished for almost a decade, before coming to an end in 1938. How was it adapted to the Japanese context? What were its goals, methods, successes and failures? And what can this example tell us about the global circulation of ideas regarding social responsibility, the state and welfare in the inter-war period?     

Jurisdiction in Trans Health

This article utilizes a novel framework to analyse the contested boundaries between law and medicine. Bringing theoretical and empirical insights together, it expands recent socio-legal scholarship on jurisdiction. Jurisdictional analysis is conducted in an under-researched area of health law – namely, the accessibility of trans-related health care. The article draws upon the first qualitative research project to assess the impact of self-declaration of legal gender status in Denmark. This was adopted in 2014, at the same time as access to hormones and surgeries was centralized and restricted. The combined impact of these reforms disappointed the trans people interviewed, which demonstrates the importance of identifying how legal and medical norms interrelate. Jurisdictional analysis helps to illuminate how law was used to develop and protect professional competencies. Such insights will be valuable for researchers interested in the potential of self-declaration, and for scholars of health law and socio-legal studies more generally.     

Inequality,land reform and agricultural growth in China, 1952–55: A preliminary treatment

Although the Agrarian Reform Laws of the late 1940s were intended to preserve the rich peasant economy, Chinese land reform during 1947–52 was uneven in its spatial impact. In some areas, the reform was indeed a ‘wager on the strong’. But in others, land reform was more egalitarian, re‐distributing self‐cultivated land from rich peasants to the rural poor. New county‐level evidence suggests that this egalitarianism hampered the pace of agricultural growth in the years immediately prior to collectivisation.