Restoring the Rule of Law to Public Administration: What Frank Goodnow Got Right and Leonard White Didn't

Although the rule of law is universally regarded as a fundamental principle of democratic governance, the field of public administration continues to exhibit the "anti-legal temper" that emerged in the 1920s, when Leonard White's managerialism largely displaced Frank Goodnow's emphasis on the intimacy of law and administration. Although administrative law is a distinguished subfield of scholarship and practice within public administration, the consensus view within the profession seems to be that law is one of many constraints on administrative discretion rather than its source, a challenge to administrative leadership rather than its guiding principle. In addition to unacceptably narrowing the range of values infusing public administration, such a view undermines the profession's ability to contribute to the design of our governance arrangements at a time when constitutional institutions are being seriously challenged. To fulfill its constitutional role, public administration must commit itself to the rule of law as an institution that secures its legitimacy.     

Humanitarianism and Responsibility

This article serves as an introduction to the articles in this special issue of the Journal of Human Rights on humanitarianism and responsibility. We thread the work of our contributors, along with other key scholars, together into a broader discussion about the possibilities and limitations of humanitarian responsibility. We first elaborate several constitutive dimensions of responsibility as it has been understood in humanitarian discourse, with particular attention to the way in which it has been deployed to both limit and extend the humanitarian mandate. We then consider how the discourse of humanitarian responsibility constitutes a departure from, and a possible alternative to, the discourse of human rights as the reigning lingua franca in which ethical arguments are advanced at the global level. Ultimately, we contend that while renewed emphasis on responsibility is no panacea for the difficult political and ethical questions that bedevil international humanitarianism and should not displace the focus on human rights, the process of critically engaging with this term may present a valuable opportunity to rethink the pursuit of global justice as a situated and contingent engagement between the self and those distant and proximate others who are exposed to catastrophes, natural and man-made.     

From Collectivism to Capitalism: Neoliberalism and Rural Mobilization in Nicaragua

This article draws on longitudinal, ethnographic data gathered in rural Nicaragua over a two‐decade period to examine the ideological and political implications of neoliberalism in the prefigurative, grassroots stages of social mobilization. It contrasts divergent path‐dependent processes of accommodation and resistance to neoliberalism as Nicaraguan peasants have moved from collectivism to individual farming, with an emphasis on interpretive processes. This study explores how market processes both serve as an external grievance and operate internally in rural communities to reconfigure rural social relations and individual and collective identities. It also seeks to develop concepts and interpretations that may be applied more broadly to analyze links between deepening market processes and the forms and content of social movement responses to deteriorating economic conditions.     

NEGLECTED INFANTS IN FAMILY COURT

This paper applies the science of early childhood development to the question of neglect in infancy to offer best practice guidance to family law and child protection professionals charged with acting in their best interest. The paper discusses the challenges of presenting cases of infant neglect, particularly emotional neglect, to the court. Current science on the implications of neglect for brain development, and long term mental health are discussed. Recommendations for assessment, intervention and questions that should be addressed in court deliberations are outlined.     

Abortion laws and medical developments: a medico-legal anomaly in Queensland

In October 2010 the District Court sitting in Cairns, Queensland, found Tegan Leach not guilty of attempting to procure her own abortion and Sergie Brennan not guilty of supplying Leach with the drugs Mifepristone and Misoprostol to procure an abortion. Brennan obtained the drugs from his sister in the Ukraine through the regular postal system. R v Brennan and Leach was the first case in Queensland's history where a woman was charged with procuring her own abortion. The drugs are accepted by the medical profession worldwide for medical abortions. A prosecution witness gave evidence that Mifepristone is not harmful or injurious to the health of a woman and it is listed as an essential medicine by the World Health Organisation and approved for use by the Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration. The jury found the defendants not guilty because they were not satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that the combination of the drugs Mifepristone and Misoprostol was a "noxious" substance under the Criminal Code (Old). This article concludes that there is no regulatory miracle which will stop the traffic of Mifepristone and Misoprostol into Australia and therefore an intelligent regulatory response is required which would make it unnecessary for women to seek Mifepristone and Misoprostol from overseas networks and the internet. Among other things, this would include the repeal of confusing, inappropriate and ineffective abortion laws.     

The Death Penalty: A Multi-level Analysis of Public Opinion

Considerable research has examined public opinion of the death penalty using simplistic questions such as, “Do you favor or oppose the death penalty.” Simply categorizing people into favoring or opposing capital punishment does little to address the array of factors and circumstances that are part of every murder. We examine variables concerning the nature of homicides from a set of 40 murder vignettes used to gauge respondents’ level of support for capital punishment in murder cases. The data are structured such that vignette responses are nested within individuals, meaning a multi-level analysis is appropriate. We used HLM to explore how vignette-level or homicide related characteristics influence support for the death penalty, as well as how individual-level characteristics condition these factors. Analyses revealed that individual-level variables were non-significant when analyzed independently; however, cross-level interactions indicated significant individual-level influences on homicide-level characteristics as they relate to respondents’ support for the death penalty.     

Subprime Lending Foreclosures,Crime, and Neighborhood Disorganization: Beyond Internal Dynamics

Research and theorizing about communities and crime has largely focused on internal neighborhood dynamics, to the neglect of factors external to the community that may be important processes in shaping community crime rates. We argue that subprime lending practices and the foreclosures that result may result in higher crime rates. We utilize data from the Summit County Lending Study, the Akron Police Department, and the 2000 U.S. Census to test the hypothesis that subprime lending foreclosures increase crime in urban neighborhoods. We find that subprime lending foreclosures have substantial impact on crime counts, net of controls. We conclude that additional research and theorizing about the role of external factors in the disorganization model is required.     

Retribution or Truth-Telling in South Africa? Legacies of the Transitional Phase

Almost from the start of South Africa's transition to democracy in the 1990s, the issue arose of how those both within the National Party government and from the opposition who had committed human rights abuses would be treated. Like many other countries undergoing democratic regime change, South Africa's endeavors to exorcise the demons of its past while ensuring stability have depended and continue to depend to a certain extent on the delicate choice between truth telling and retribution, a choice, in turn, closely tied to the process of democratization and to the distibution of power within the body that led the change. The authors ask how the nature of the South African transition and the character of the transitional authority affected the treatment of past abuses. They further examine the way the transitional authorities balanced retribution and truth telling and the consequences of their actions for the stability of the new democracy.