Legal intervention in civil commitment: the impact of broadened commitment criteria

Recent legal changes in Washington State have broadened the grave-disability criterion for civil commitment of the mentally ill. Analysis of data from state mental hospitals and from records of commitment authorities in Washington's two largest counties revealed that, while there was an increase in the number of involuntary hospitalizations immediately before and after the changes in law, there was a virtual disappearance of voluntary patients in state hospitals. Moreover, expansion of the definition of "grave disability" resulted in a move toward a parens patriae-dominated civil commitment system. Analysis of the empirical consequences of the legal changes on commitment decisions is presented, along with the response of mental health officials and the public.     

Thwarted voters at the 2000 US presidential election

This article examines the behavior at the 2000 US presidential election of the self-described Democrats who, prior to the election but after the candidates were nominated, preferred Bill Bradley to Al Gore, as well as of the Republicans who had a higher opinion of John McCain than they did of George W. Bush. These “thwarted voters” are examined with regard to turnout, candidate choice, and motivations, and they are compared on these dimensions with thwarted voters at earlier US presidential elections. Attention is given to estimating the extent to which their behavior in 2000 was critical for the popular vote totals, and counterfactual analysis is employed to estimate the probable effects on the election’s outcome of marginal alterations in the voters’ perceptions of the candidates’ attributes.     

Environmental belief systems among Japanese and American elites and publics

This paper compares the environmental belief systems of elites and publics in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan, and Spokane County, Washington State. The central question posed is whether the shared forces of postindustrialism generate similar belief structures among elites in nations with quite distinct cultural, political, and historical backgrounds. As a prototypical postindustrial policy area, natural resource/environmental politics is used as the specific issue domain of study. The results emerging from this comparative inquiry reveal substantial differences between the Japanese and American local area elites in the structuring of environmental beliefs, especially in the role of postindustrial orientations. The results also suggest much larger differences in belief system content and structure between elite and general public samples in the Spokane area than in Shizuoka Prefecture.     

Lessons from Cukurova

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. Key points

• The recent decision of the High Court of the BritishVirgin Islands in Alfa v Cukurova has caused a stir among lawyersserving the international financial markets based in London.
• Thedecision concerns the meaning of ‘appropriation’.Appropriation is a new remedy for collateral takers introducedby the Financial Collateral Arrangements (No. 2) Regulations2003, which implement the Financial Collateral Directive.
• Thedecision holds that effective appropriation requires the collateraltaker to take over from the collateral giver the ability todeal with the collateral as its own.
• In Cukurova, where anequitable mortgage was taken over directly held shares, thisrequired that the collateral taker become the registered ownerof the shares.
• The decision was appealed to the BVI Court ofAppeal in late January 2008 and may go further. In the meantime,this article provides an overview of the decision and considersits wider significance.