Lord Cottenham and the Court of Chancery

Lord Cottenham was a significant legal figure in nineteenth-century Britain. He was a Lord Chancellor and Keeper of the Great Seal in both Lord Melbourne's and Lord Russell's administrations. Yet compared with his peers he has faded into obscurity, because his contribution to the reform of the Court of Chancery and the development of the law, particularly equity, has not been fully appreciated. It will be argued that Lord Cottenham was not as successful as his successors in reforming Chancery because his attempts to do so were flawed by the view that incremental reform would redress the problems which beset the Court. However, he made some highly significant contributions to equitable doctrine, sometimes taking a practical approach to judicial decision-making and laying the foundation for some modern doctrines.     

Fast quantification of 11-nor-Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol-9-carboxylic acid (THCA) using microwave-accelerated derivatisation and gas chromatography–triple quadrupole mass spectrometry

A rapid and sensitive determination of cannabinoids in urine is important in many fields, from workplace drug testing over toxicology to the fight against doping. The detection of cannabis abuse is normally based on the quantification of the most important metabolite 11-nor-Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol-9-carboxylic acid (THCA) in urine. In most fields THCA needs to be present at a concentration of exceeding 15 ng/mL before a positive result can be reported.The method described in this paper, combines a 4 min GC–MS/MS method with a fast sample preparation procedure using microwave assisted derivatisation in order to complete the quantification of THCA in urine in 30 min, using only 1 mL of urine.The method is selective, linear over the range 5–100 ng/mL and shows excellent precision and trueness and hence, the estimated measurement uncertainty at the threshold level is small. The method also complies with applicable criteria for mass spectrometry and chromatography. Therefore the method can be used for rapid screening and confirmatory purposes.     

Legitimacy in corrections

Research Summary
To extend research on legitimacy to the correctional system, we study a sample of 202 adult inmates randomly assigned to serve their 6-month sentence at one of two institutions—a traditional prison or a military-style correctional boot camp. Findings show that perceptions of justice system legitimacy changed during the course of incarceration, that the prison (but not the boot camp) proved delegitimizing, and that certain regime characteristics explained why.
Policy Implications
Across academic disciplines, studies continue to link compliance with perceived legitimacy. Compliance with the law, for instance, is related closely to the legitimacy of the justice system and its actors. These findings suggest implementing legitimacy-building policies such as procedurally fair treatment and decision making by police officers and judges. This article, by finding legitimacy to be malleable even at the final stage of the justice process, proposes the efficacy of similar policies in the correctional system. As research from England and Wales has shown, legitimizing strategies in this context could increase compliance both during and after incarceration.