The Scope of Criminal Law and Criminal Sanctions: An Economic View and Policy Implications

This paper considers why some harm-generating activities are controlled by criminal law and criminal sanctions while others are subject to some other mechanism such as civil law, administrative law, regulation or the tax system. It looks at the question from the perspective of the law and economics approach. We seek to identify the comparative benefits of using the criminal law relative to other enforcement mechanisms and – more broadly – why certain specific behaviours are criminalized. The paper argues that an economic approach emphasizing the relative merits of alternative legal instruments for bringing about harm reduction can provide an explanation for a number of recent legal developments. It argues also that the willingness of legislators to combine the use of sanctions traditionally used in one area of the law with sanctions from other areas is more readily explicable in economic terms than in other terms.     

Piercing the Family's Private Veil: Family Violence, International Human Rights, and the Cross-Cultural Record

International law does not take family violence seriously enough. Although reviews and commentaries of international law regularly ignore family violence, such violence increasingly becomes a central concern of modern international treaties and plans of action. This article details how international law, which still tends to limit itself to inter-state behavior, seeks to transform local cultural practices and forms of interpersonal relations that lead to family violence. Although these developments largely remain in their infancy, the article proposes that international human rights developments are both legitimate and necessary.     

COMPETITION IN PROFESSIONAL SERVICES MARKETS: ARE LATIN NOTARIES DIFFERENT?

Competition in markets for services offered by Latin notariesmay not work properly because of information asymmetries andthe need to guarantee an optimal supply of public goods. InEurope, there have been two test cases allowing for an assessmentof the effects of liberalization: the abolishment of the solicitors’monopoly for conveyancing services in England and Wales andthe deregulation of the Dutch notary profession. Both casesshow that deregulation does not guarantee lower prices. Moreover,the Dutch experience shows that there is a justified concernthat competition may decrease quality and jeopardize the notary'sintegrity. For these reasons, regulation may be justified aslong as effective instruments to control and monitor qualityare not (yet) in place. Since legal certainty has characteristicsof a public good, competition also tends to increase the numberof disputes on the legal validity of documents certifying legaltransactions. A comparison of the tasks of a Latin notary andthose of an American notary public provides reasons to fearthat, after deregulation, protection against legally invalidtransactions may be available only at higher prices. Finally,the Dutch experience shows that fee regulations remain necessaryto guarantee the accessibility of notarial services.     

Development of a Marketing Campaign to Recruit Non-adjudicated and Untreated Abusive Men for a Brief Telephone Intervention

Although voluntary enrollment by abusive men in domestic violence perpetrator treatment programs occurs, most men enter treatment only after they have injured a partner or family member and have been arrested, convicted and sentenced. This leaves a serious gap for those who engage in abusive behavior but who have not been served by the legal or social service systems. To address this gap, the researchers applied social marketing principles to recruit abusive men to a telephone-delivered pre-treatment intervention (the Men’s Domestic Abuse Check-Up—MDACU), designed to motivate non-adjudicated and untreated abusive men who are concurrently using alcohol and drugs to enter treatment voluntarily. This article discusses recruitment efforts in reaching perpetrators of intimate partner violence, an underserved population. Informed by McGuire’s communication and persuasion matrix, the researchers describe three phases of the MDACU’s marketing campaign: (1) planning, (2) early implementation, and (3) revision of marketing strategies based on initial results. The researchers’ “lessons learned” conclude the paper. This project is supported by a grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, 1 RO1 DA017873.     

Variation in Methods of Cardiac Dissection—A Potential Confounder in Measuring Cardiac Weight at Autopsy

To evaluate whether the weight of the heart measured at autopsy may be affected by the type of dissection, a prospective study was undertaken of the weights of sequential cases of nonpediatric hearts. Four hundred fifty‐eight hearts were examined (age range 17–96 years; mean 55.9 years; M:F = 3:1). The hearts were each weighed fresh, once the apex had been sliced, the auricles of the atria opened and blood drained, and again once the cardiac chambers had been opened completely. The difference in the partially and fully opened heart weights (range 146–1028 g; mean 434.8 g; range 134–1011 g; mean 420.8 g, respectively) (p < 0.05) ranged from 0 to 100 g (mean 14 g). In the most extreme example, the weight of the partially opened heart was 30.3% higher than that of the fully opened specimen. Failure to fully open the heart prior to weighing may result in significant error.     

Globalization and its Alternatives

Colin Duncan: The Centrality of Agriculture: Between Humankind and the Rest of Nature. Montreal: McGill‐Queen's University Press, 1996.

Richard Powers: Gain. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1998.     

Surveillance and intelligence under the Vichy regime: The service du controle technique, 1939–45

F. Lafitte, The Internment of Aliens (London: Libris, new edition, 1990). Pp. 266. £9.00.

A. W. Brian Simpson, In the Highest Degree Odious (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1992). Pp. 453. £35.00.