The inadequate legislative response to e-signatures

This article examines the two most influential international initiatives on electronic signatures (UNCITRAL’s 1996 Model Law on Electronic Commerce and the 1999 EU Electronic Signature Directive). It considers whether the legislative approaches in Australia and the United Kingdom based on these initiatives are helpful in deciding whether lower level signature methods such as simple email messages are likely to satisfy a legal requirement for a signature. The conclusion reached is that they are unhelpful. The article goes on to consider whether legislative amendments based on UNCITRAL’s 2001 Model Law on Electronic Signatures or the 2005 UN Convention on the Use of Electronic Communications in International Contracts would improve the identified weaknesses. It concludes that such an update would clarify some issues, but that overall it will not solve the difficulties. The article ends with a brief speculation on the likely attributes of a more helpful approach.     

Drug Contamination of U.S. Paper Currency and Forensic Relevance of Canine Alert to Paper Currency: A Critical Review of the Scientific Literature

Several studies have reported on wide‐spread contamination of U.S. paper currency with cocaine and to a lesser extent other illicit drugs. Canines are trained and employed to search for and alert to drugs. Canine alert to currency has been used as evidence that currency has been directly involved in illicit drug trafficking to justify currency seizure and forfeiture. This assertion, particularly when the only evidence is based upon canine alert, has been challenged in the courts considering that most currency in circulation is contaminated with cocaine. Comprehensive review of the scientific literature establishes that (i) 67–100% of circulated U.S. currency is contaminated with cocaine ranging from a few nanograms to over one milligram/bill (ii) various biological and environmental parameters impact canine alert to drugs. It is concluded that canine alert to U.S. currency is not sufficiently reliable to determine that currency was directly used in an illicit drug transaction.     

Vera Zasulich,the shooting of Trepov and the growth of political terrorism in Russia, 1878–1881

Abstract

This article is an analysis of a trial that has been described as the most momentous in the history of Imperial Russia. In January 1878 Vera Zasulich, later a correspondent of Marx and a critic of Lenin, shot at and wounded Fyodor Trepov, the Governor of St. Petersburg; her trial and acquittal a few months later sparked a wave of political terrorism in Russia that culminated on March 1, 1881 in the assassination of Tsar Alexander II. The article attempts to demonstrate, among other things, that the Trepov shooting was hardly the political act it was perceived to be by contemporaries who were inspired by it to resort to terrorism in an effort to overthrow autocracy. That historians as well have treated the Trepov shooting as “political'’ makes it imperative that this misperception be corrected. The author concludes from a lengthy exploration of Zasulich's motives that, in moral terms, they compare favorably with those of most terrorists today.     

Modelling Transitions To and From Democracy

This article describes the results of a broad reanalysis of factors shaping the prospects of countries making a transition to or from democracy using a new measure of regime type. While some of the results are consistent with prior quantitative and comparative research, others are not. For example, in line with other studies, the article finds that autocracies are more likely to make a transition to democracy when they offer broader protections for civil liberties, experience a change in political leadership, or suffer an economic downturn. At the same time, the analysis does not support the claim that transitions in neighbouring countries directly improve prospects for a transition to democracy, or that economic decline and presidential systems heighten the risk of democratic breakdown. Perhaps most intriguing, our model of transitions to democracy also identifies a new twist on old stories linking economic development to democratization. For countries under authoritarian rule that have attempted democracy before, the research here indicates that development does improve prospects for another attempt, as modernization theory suggests. For countries with no democratic experience, however, affluence conveys no direct democratizing benefit and appears, if anything, to help sustain authoritarian rule.     

How shelter counselors' views about responsibility for wife abuse relate to services they provide to battered women

A survey of shelter counselors found their views of responsibility for wife abuse were significantly related to their: (a) support of a battered woman's decision to remain married, and (b) belief that battering husbands can stop being abusive. Counselors who viewed the husband and wife as equally responsible for wife abuse were the most supportive of a woman's decision to remain married and were most likely to believe that batterers are able to stop being abusive. Counselors who viewed the batterer as completely responsible for wife abuse were more likely to encourage battered women who want to remain married to end their marriage, and believe batterers are unable to stop being abusive.     

State and Local Government Officials' Perspectives on Intergovernmental Relationships in Surface Transportation Policy: 1987 and 2001

This article reports results of nationwide surveys of stateand local government officials conducted in 2000/2001 concerningtheir perspectives on intergovernmental relationships in surfacetransportation. It then compares the survey results with theresults from a 1987 survey on the same topic that was conductedby the U.S. Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations.Although there was some variation among the categories of stateand local government officials surveyed, overall, both stateand local government officials report that they are relativelysatisfied with intergovernmental relationships in surface transportationand that those relationships have generally improved since 1987.     

“Clean up and go straight”: Effects of drug treatment on recidivism among felony probationers

The central question we address in this article is whether participation in court-ordered drug treatment programs reduces future criminal involvement among convicted property offenders who have a history of drug abuse. Using a national sample of male property offenders sentenced to felony probation, we analyze drug treatment experience on probationers’ recidivism rates by employing proportional hazards techniques. Results indicate that how successful white men are in completing courtordered drug treatment programs has no significant effect on their recidivism rates. However, AfricanAmerican and Hispanic men who satisfy the expectations of their drug treatment programs are significantly less likely to be rearrested. Overall, our findings support the contention that drug treatment reduces further criminal behavior among men on probation for felony property offenses. Thus, we recommend that court service personnel strive to provide drug treatment programs for property offenders with a history of drug abuse and that supervisors closely monitor probationers’ activities while in treatment to assure lower rates of recidivism. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the annual meeting of the Midwest Sociological Society in Chicago in April 1996.