Community development: Freire and Grameen in the Barrowfield Project,Glasgow, Scotland

This article is an attempt to examine one of the better-known failures in UK community development – the Barrowfield Project in Glasgow (1986–1996) – and to compare and contrast it with other attempts at community development, especially some associated with the work of Mohammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank, and the legacy of Paulo Freire. We conclude that both Freire and Yunus make assumptions about the pre-existence of community which limit the potential impact of their ideas in an area such as Barrowfield, where anomie and apathy were rife. We further find that just as actions intended to be liberating may reinforce the dominant hegemony, the converse may on occasion also be true. In recent years the Barrowfield Project has risen from the ashes of its previous demise, and so the present work needs to be seen in that context.     

Political and social rights for second country nationals: freedom of movement and citizenship in Australasia

Agreements allowing regional freedom of movement inevitably raise questions about the citizenship status and rights of those who exercise regional mobility. In the case of the European Union, such questions have received considerable academic attention, particularly since the creation of European citizenship in 1992. Little attention has been paid to Australasia, where a long-standing freedom of movement agreement, the trans-Tasman Travel Arrangement (TTTA), permits New Zealanders and Australians to live and work indefinitely in each others' country. As the two countries pursue a single economic market, the TTTA has played a central role in facilitating the creation of a regional labour market. Changes to Australian social security and citizenship legislation, however, have meant that many New Zealanders permanently resident in Australia have limited social and political rights, and no access to citizenship. This article extends debates about whether the political and social rights of citizenship ought to be granted to second-country nationals into the Australasian context. It examines a range of arrangements by which citizenship could be protected during the current period of intense economic integration in Australasia, asking which provides the best fit with existing constitutional and political arrangements.     

Replacing Provocation in England and Wales: Examining the Partial Defence of Loss of Control

In October 2010, provocation was abolished as a partial defence to murder in England and Wales. Through the introduction of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009, a new partial defence of loss of control was implemented. This sought to overcome problems associated with the provocaton defence and the gendered operation of the law of homicide, particularly in relation to male‐perpetrated intimate homicides, and the inadequate response of the law to the contexts in which battered women kill. This article first provides an account of these developments, and then examines legal stakeholders' perceptions of them. Drawing from in‐depth interviews with criminal justice professionals, it considers their perceptions of the operation of the law of homicide during a period of transition, specifically considering the formulation of the new partial defence, the initial effects of its implementation, and the significant differences between the Law Commission's recommendations and the reforms implemented by the government.     

The Legal Profession as Gatekeeper to the Judiciary: Design Faults in Measures to Enhance Diversity

The gate‐keeping role played by the legal profession in the judicial appointments process gives rise to the translation of entrenched group‐based identity hierarchies from legal practice into the judiciary. The relationship between the composition of the legal profession and the judiciary has been almost completely unaffected by recent reforms designed to increase diversity in the composition of the judiciary. This article identifies legal and institutional defects which help to explain the failure to disrupt the reproduction of these patterns of appointment. We identify two particular defects which we call ‘soft target radicalism’ and ‘regulatory bind’ as important factors inhibiting change. We conclude that if the legal profession is to retain its gate‐keeping role, equality law which directly regulates legal practice should be strengthened and the regulatory binds in which the Judicial Appointments Commission and other public entities are caught should be loosened.