The third sector, user involvement and public service reform: a case study in the co-governance of health service provision

The ‘modernization’ of British public services seeks to broaden public sector governance networks, bringing the views of third sector organizations, the public and service users (among others) to the design, management and delivery of welfare. Building on previous analyses of the contradictions generated by these roles, this paper draws on longitudinal qualitative research to enunciate the challenges faced by one third-sector organization in facilitating service user influence in a UK National Health Service (NHS) pilot programme, alongside other roles in tension with this advocacy function. The analysis highlights limits in the extent to which lateral governance networks pluralize stakeholder involvement. The ‘framing’ of governance may mean that traditional concerns outweigh the views of new stakeholders such as the third sector and service users. Rather than prioritizing wider stakeholders' views in the design and delivery of public services, placing third sector organizations at the centre of governance networks may do more to co-opt these organizations in reproducing predominant priorities.     

Comparison of glass fragments using particle-induced X-ray emission (PIXE) spectrometry

A procedure has been developed to analyze the trace element concentrations in glass fragments using particle-induced X-ray emission (PIXE) spectrometry. This method involves using accelerated protons to excite inner-shell electronic transitions of target atoms and recording the resultant X-rays to characterize the trace element concentrations. The protocol was able to identify those glass fragments that originated from different sources based on their elemental analyses. The protocol includes specific approaches to calculating uncertainties and handling measurements below the level of detection. The results indicate that this approach has increased sensitivity for several elements with higher atomic number compared with X-ray fluorescence methods. While not as sensitive as laser-ablation or inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry methods of dissolved samples, it is entirely nondestructive and entails a much simpler sample preparation process that may be used to presort glass fragments for more comprehensive elemental analysis. As such, the technique described may have a niche role in forensic glass analysis.     

Courts' misplaced confidence in psychiatric diagnoses

In considering psychiatric evidence, criminal justice systems make considerable use of labels from official psychiatric classificatory systems. There are legislated requirements for psychological and/or behavioural phenomena to be addressed in legal tests, however medico-legal use of the current categorical diagnostic frameworks which are increasingly complex is difficult to justify. The lack of validity in large domains of the present classificatory systems is now more openly acknowledged, prompting a critical rethink. Illustrative examples include post-traumatic stress disorder, various personality disorders, and dissociative identity disorder. It follows that the Courts' faith in the present categorical classifications (e.g., DSMIV and ICD10) is misplaced and may be ultimately unhelpful to the administration of justice.     

Abolishing Some More Obsolete Crown Prerogatives

The Crown had many prerogatives (privileges) which other legal and natural persons did not have, due to the pre-eminent role of the sovereign. Some of these the Crown delegated to its subjects. That is, it franchised them, in return for money. In modern times??with the sovereign only having a formal role??it needs to be considered whether these Crown prerogatives should pass to the control of Parliament. Also, where they are obsolete, their abolition. A previous article has argued for the abolition of many obsolete prerogatives relating to the military. This article argues that the prerogatives of the Crown to levy pontage (a toll for the building, and repair, of bridges) and murage (a toll for the building, and repair, of town and city walls for defensive purposes) should be abolished. So too, the right of the Crown to waifs (stolen goods cast away by a thief in flight) and estrays (animals wandering in any manor or lordship whose owner is unknown). Also, that the prerogative of the Crown to unmarked mute swans in open water be restricted to the Thames??where it is only presently exercised. Finally, this article argues for the abolition of the palatinates of Lancaster, Chester and Durham??since the prerogatives once given to them by the Crown have now reverted to the same??and for the abolition of various long obsolete prerogatives given to the Cinque Ports.     

Exploring the dynamics of policy interaction: Feedback among and impacts from multiple,concurrently applied policy approaches for promoting collaboration

The prisoner's dilemma and stag hunt games, as well as the apparent benefits of collaboration, have motivated governments to promote more frequent and effective collaboration through a variety of policy approaches. Sometimes, multiple kinds of policies are applied concurrently, and yet little is understood about how these policies might interact with each other. This study uses a simulation approach to examine one such case, when policies focused on increasing collaboration competence interact with those that motivate parties to collaborate based on payoff and non‐payoff incentives. Theoretically, our findings suggest seven testable hypotheses for future, rigorous research. Practically, our initial findings suggest that increasing competency generally improves the performance of incentive‐based policies, but not always. Exhortation policies can go too far and may be more prone to doing so when the target population's competency is higher. This means that decision makers are more at risk of applying too much exhortation effort, especially if they are also concurrently applying a competency‐building approach. © 2011 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.     

Building sustainable free legal advisory systems: Experiences from the history of AI & law

The enthusiasm for artificial intelligence (AI) as a source of solutions to problems is not new. In law, from the early 1980s until at least the early 2000s, considerable work was done on developing ‘legal expert systems.’ As the DataLex project, we participated in those developments, through research and publications, commercial and non-commercial systems, and teaching students application development. This paper commences with a brief account of that work to situate our perspective.The main aim of this paper is an assessment of what might be of value from the experience of the DataLex Project to contemporary use of ‘AI and law’ by free legal advice services, who must necessarily work within funding and other constraints in developing and sustaining such systems. We draw fifteen conclusions from this experience, which we consider are relevant to development of systems for free legal advice services. The desired result, we argue, is the development of integrated legal decision-support systems, not ‘expert systems’ or ‘robot lawyers’. We compare our insights with the approach of the leading recent text in the field, and with a critical review of the field over twenty-five years. We conclude that the approach taken by the DataLex Project, and now applied to free legal advice services, remains consistent with leading work in field of AI and law.The paper concludes with brief suggestions of what are the most desirable improvements to tools and platforms to enable development of free legal advice systems. The objectives of free access to legal information services have much in common with those of free legal advice services. The information resources that free access to law providers (including LIIs) can provide will often be those that free legal advice services will need to use to develop and sustain free legal advisory systems. There is therefore strong potential for valuable collaborations between these two types of services providers.     

A Soviet paradise à L'Américaine

An Examination of the Mystic Tendencies in Islam in the light of the Qur'an and Traditions. By M. M.Zuhúruddin Ahmad, M.A. LL.B., Professor of Logic and Philosophy at the Ismail College, Andheri (Bombay). 9” x 5½”. Pp. 248. Published by the author, Pali Road, Bandra (Bombay). 1932. Obtained in England for 10s. 6d.

The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam. By Sir Muhammad Iqbal. 9” x 5½”. Pp. 192. Oxford University Press. London: Humphrey Milford. 1934. 7^s. 6d. net.

The Suez Canal: Its Past, Present and Future. By Lieut.‐Colonel Sir Arnold Wilson, K.C.I.E. 10” x 7". Pp. xv+224. Map. Oxford University Press. 1933. 15s.

The Capitulatory Regime of Turkey: Its History, Origin and Nature. By Nasim Sousa. 8½” x 5¾”. Pp. xxiii+378. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press.

Catalogue of Wall‐Paintings from Ancient Shrines in Central Asia and Sistan. Recovered by Sir Aurel Stein, K.C.I.E., described by Fred H. Andrews, O.B.E., under the orders of the Government of India. Delhi: Manager of Publications.

The History of Buddhist Thought. By Edward J. Thomas, M.A., D.Litt. 9½” x 6½”. Pp. xvi+314. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner and Co., Ltd. 1933. 15s.

The Eclipse of Christianity in Asia. From the time of Muhammad until the Fourteenth Century. By L. E. Browne. 9” x 6”. Pp. 198. Map. Cambridge University Press. 1933. 10s. 6d.

Oriental Studies. Edited by Jai Dastur Cursetji Pavry, with a Foreword by A. V.Williams, in honour of Cursetji Erachji Pavry. 9¾” x 6½”. Pp. xv+503. Frontispiece. Oxford University Press. 1934. 50s. net.

A History of Exploration. From the Earliest Times to the Present Day. By Brigadier‐General Sir Percy Sykes, K.C.I.E., C.B., C.M.G. 10” x 6”. Pp. xiv+374. Coloured frontispiece, plates, and maps. Routledge. 1934. 25s.

Peaks and Plains of Central Asia. By Colonel Reginald C. F. Schomberg. 8¾” x 5¾”. Pp. 288. Illustrations and three maps. London: Martin Hopkinson. 1933. 15s. net.

” La Croisière Jaune.” The Citroën‐Haardt Expedition through Central Asia. By Georges Le Fevre. Pp. xli + 342. 123 photographs. Plates. Maps. Paris. 1933. Edition de Luxe.

Le Pasteur de Tribus. Par Alexandre Syline. Paris: Librairie Gallimard. 1932.

First Russia, then Tibet. By Robert Byron. 9½” x 6¾”. Pp. xvi + 328. Illustrations. Macmillan. 15s.

The White Armies of Russia. The Chronicle of Counter‐Revolution and Allied Intervention. By George Stewart. 8” x 6”. Pp. xiii + 469. Maps and illustrations. New York: Macmillan Co. 21s.

Dans les Coulisses du Kremlin. By S. Dmitrievsky. Translated from the Russian into French by René le Grand. 7” x 4¾”. Pp. vii + 240. Paris: Lib Plon. 12 fr.

Foreign Investments in China. By C. F. Remer. 8¾” x 6”. Pp. xxi + 708. New York: The Macmillan Company. 1933. 25s.

Japan. By F. C. Jones, M.A. 7½” x 5”. Pp. viii+133. Maps. Modern State Series No. 1. General Editor, R. B. Mowat. Arrowsmith. 3s. 6d.

The Hundred Names. By Dr. Henry H. Hart. Published by the University of California Press and the Cambridge University Press. 1933. 11s. 6d. net.

Something Happened. By M. Cable and F. French. Pp. ii + 320. Illustrations. Map. Hodder and Stoughton. 5s.

The Jungle in Sunlight and Shadow. By F. W. Champion. 10” x 7¾”. Pp. xvi + 270. Illustrations. Chatto and Windus. 21s.

James Silk Buckingham, 1786–1855. A Social Biography. By Ralph E. Turner. 8½” x 5¾”. Pp. viii+463. Plates. Williams and Norgate. 21s.

On Hill and Plain. By Lord Hardinge of Penshurst, K.G. A Viceroy's Recollections of Delightful Days of Sport in India. 8” x 5¼”. Pp. xii + 110. Illustrations. John Murray. 1933. 7s. 6d.

Le Voyage d'Un Pelerin Chinois dans l'Inde des Bouddhas. Précédé d'un exposé des doctrines de l'Inde Antique sur La Vie et La Mort. By Henri Valentino. Paris. Editions G.P. Maisonneuve. 3 Rue de Sabot. 18 francs.

Indian India. By C. W. Waddington, C.I.E., M.V.O. London: Jarrolds. 1933.

Indo‐China: A Sportsman's Opportunity. By Archibald Harrison. 8½” x 5½”. Pp. 7+157. Plates and maps. Plymouth: Mayflower Press.

Secrets of the Red Sea. By Henry de Monfreid. Translated by Helen Buchanan Bell. 8½” x 5½”. Pp. vii + 317. Sixteen pages illustrated. Faber and Fabcr. 1933. 12s. 6d.

Into the Sun. By Frieda Das. 7½” x 5”. Pp. 312. Dent. 7s. 6d.

The Assyrian Tragedy. Annemasse, February, 1934.

The Naked Mountain. By E. Knowlton. Putnam.

First over Everest. By Air Commodore Fellowes, D.S.O., L. V. Stewart Blacker, Col. P. T. Etheton, Marquis of Clydesdale. Foreword by John Buchan, and account of the filming by G. Barkas. 9¾” x 6½”.Illustrations, maps, diagrams. Pp. xix + 279. Lane, Bodley Head. 12s. 6d.